


I'm The Daddy?

by TUA (IAMS)



Series: I'm The Daddy Here! [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, And adopts all of his siblings, Canonical Character Death, Creepy The Handler (Umbrella Academy), Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Five comes back much earlier, Gen, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Slice of Life, The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy) Need a Hug, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, in order to stop the apocalypse, this is the most self indulgent thing i've ever written so bare w me thanku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 79,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26241655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAMS/pseuds/TUA
Summary: Five spends fifteen years in the apocalypse and two years working for the Temps Commission before breaking his contract and time traveling back to the year 2003; just a year after he originally went missing.According to his calculations, wiping Reginald's existence from the timeline means the apocalypse never occurs. But of course, this leaves several newly orphaned fourteen year olds in his care.Let the family bonding and therapy ensue.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Everyone
Series: I'm The Daddy Here! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975414
Comments: 689
Kudos: 1565
Collections: The Umbrella Academy





	1. Chapter 1

It's fucked, the way time travel works.

Or rather, _doesn't_.

Because really, it makes no goddamn sense.

Five's been fiddling with the concept for the last seventeen years and the fourth dimension known as time still baffles and frustrates him to no end.

If his calculations are correct, however, he should land somewhere between the years 2002 and 2003.

The building is just as monumental and assuming as the day he ran away from it, Five thinks, exhaling slowly and bracing himself for this next part.

He blinks into the one room in the Umbrella Academy he'd never dared step foot inside of as a child.

And there he is: _Reginald Hargreeves_.

Sound asleep and completely unaware of what's to come.

Or so he thinks, right up until he's face to face with the old man and Reginald opens those deadly cold eyes of his.

If he's surprised to see his long lost son-now seventeen years older no less-he doesn't show it. Instead he lays there, still, and arches a brow. 

"Five, it's about time you returned." Reginald folds his arms over the sheets on his bed and across his torso. He looks smug for someone in such a vulnerable position. "How long has it been for you? Ten-fifteen years?" he gauges.

"Seventeen." Five sits down on the corner of the mattress and feels it dip slightly under the weight of his body.

"Ah," Reginald nods, "I see. It's been a year to date in our timeline since your disappearance. I assume you're here to end my life."

Five shouldn't be surprised-the old man has always been a few too many steps ahead of him, after all. "I ran the numbers. Your death means the apocalypse never comes to fruition. Don't worry, I'll make it quick and painless." He uncaps a needle tucked and hidden away in his inner coat pocket and taps it lightly with a finger, making sure there aren't any air bubbles in the syringe. 

Reginald nods once more, solemn. "Understood. Well then." he makes an impatient 'get on with it' gesture and readjusts himself so that he's more comfortable.

There should be hesitance of some kind. Reginald wasn't father of the year, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he was-is-still the man who, for the better part of thirteen years, raised him.   
  


But the kind of life Five has lead doesn't leave room for any hesitance, and it's with that thought in mind that Five softly plunges the needle into the side of his fathers neck.   
  


Reginald's eyes droop shut almost instantly and his body goes limp a moment later and he's gone.   
  


"Master Five..."

Five turns quickly, his hand already going for the pocket knife latched to his belt, before realizing who the voice belongs to. "Pogo." he gulps. "I..." 

Pogo’s gaze falls between Five and Reginald, melancholic. "It's quite alright. Master Hargreeves was well aware that his time here was nearly done with and he'd come to terms with that." he admits. "You're staying, I presume?" the expression on his face can't be interpreted as anything but hopeful.

Five shakes his head. "I need to tie up some loose ends, but I'll be back tomorrow." he promises. "Pogo, I need you to keep this a secret for me. From the others."

"Of course. I'll inform the children in the morning that he passed peacefully in his sleep."

"Thank you." A part of Five wants to reach out and wrap his arms around Pogo, but he squashes down that childish want. He's not thirteen anymore. He's a grown, thirty year old man. More than that, he's a killer.

Murderers don't get to weep and ask for hugs.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'm holding you to that." 

*****************************************

It’s only four years, Five tells himself later, in the shit hole little motel room he pays for with cash. The less paper trail the better.

In four years his siblings will all be of age and perhaps he won’t feel so responsible for making them all fucking orphans again. Five pours nearly half the bottle of amber whiskey into his coffee mug and throws it back like he’s gulping down water in a desert.

He needs to get some sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be a hell of a long day.

  
******************************************

  
Pogo breaks the news to the Hargeeeves children as gently as he’s able, with Grace stood beside him, a sympathetic look on her face the entire time.

“Fucking finally.” Klaus lets out a giddy laugh. “The witch is dead, ooh-rah!” he takes a cigarette out of his pocket and manages to stick it in between his lips before it’s knocked out of his mouth by Luther.

“Dad is _dead_!” he screams, shaking with fury. “What is your problem?!”

“Right now? You.” the tall brunet rolls his eyes cavalierly.

“Klaus stop being an ass!” Allison wipes surreptitiously at the tears that threaten to come out. She can’t cry. Not in front of everyone. “Have some respect.” 

Diego wraps his arms around himself and resists the urge to run to Grace even though it’s all he wants to do at the moment. “I’m glad he’s d-d-dead.”

“You don’t mean that.” Vanya mumbles so softly it’s barely audible above Klaus and Luther squabbling in the background. 

Diego glares at his sister, directing all of his confusing grief at her. “Why are you even here?”

She shouldn’t have said anything, Vanya thinks, as she flinches back from his ire and digs her nails into the palms of her hands nervously.

Grace and Pogo eventually manage to convince everyone to go their separate ways and ask that the children gather back together in a few hours in order to hold a small funeral service for their father.

************************************************

The funeral is indeed small. Much like Ben’s was.

Luther thinks about his father’s words that day-what could they have done better to prevent Number Six’s death, how they were to ruminate upon their failure for the rest of the day.

But who the hell is to blame for this?

According to Pogo Reginald passed in his sleep. A mild cardiac episode, he told the children. Luther hadn’t even been aware that his father had any heart problems to begin with. Reginald was old, sure, but the man was strong as an ox and Luther can’t remember ever seeing him stumble or make a mistake.

Grace stands among them and asks, “Would anyone like to speak for the deceased?”

It’s quiet for a long moment.

And then Allison finally says, “What’s going to happen to us now?”

The others look at her in various states of shock. Luther hadn’t even thought about what would happen to them now that they were without a guardian-orphans again, even.

Diego folds his arms across his chest and huffs. “Mom will take care of us!” he says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Klaus purses his lips. “Are robots allowed to adopt this many kids?”

Grace interrupts what is sure to be a fight by producing a long yellow envelope. “I have the contents of his will on paper. I believe any custody issues and of his estate are in these documents.” she hands them to Pogo, who skims the papers with almost wide eyed surprise.

“What’s it say?” several of the children speak up simultaneously, curious and equal parts terrified. That measly folder contains all of their fates. 

Pogo looks up at the five siblings and announces, “Master Hargreeves has left his entire estate and the custody of all of his children to Five Hargreeves.”

“Oh God,” Klaus whines, “The old man really was off his rocker, huh?” 

“Don’t talk about him like that!” Luther stomps his foot. Though a tiny part of him can’t help but agree with Number Four’s brute assessment of their late father’s mental state. Five has been missing for a year now. And even if he weren’t, there’s no possible way a fourteen year old could in any court of law go through with adopting five other fourteen year olds.

Right? 

“D-dad’s not here anymore, you don’t have to keep defending him!” Diego is so over this family. First Five leaves, and then Ben, now Reginald, and to top everything off to find out they’ve been left in the care of someone who couldn’t even bother to stick around in the first place? “This is b-bullshit!”

Just as Luther turns to tell him off a horrible noise, like thunder crashing much too close for comfort, brings everyone to a full stop.

A hole suddenly opens up right above the group of mourners, crackling with an achingly familiar blue light and just as soon as it appeared it disappears, leaving behind only one thing: a man with almost pitch black hair in a dark blue suit.

The children immediately gear up for battle, fighting stances at the ready, all except ordinary little Vanya, who stands behind them and stares at the peculiar young man until it finally clicks into place and she gasps audibly. 

“Five!” it’s the loudest they’ve ever heard their sister speak and without any further hesitance Vanya stumbles straight into the man, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his chest. He’s not very tall-in fact, only about an inch or two bigger than she is, but still she finds comfort in the way his hands fall over each of her shoulders, not quite returning the hug, but not pushing her away, either. 

“Five?” Diego very slowly puts his knives down, though he doesn’t let his guard down completely. “Is it really you?” It doesn’t make any sense at all. 

But what about their lives ever has? 

“That’s not Five! Vanya, get away from him!” Luther orders, fists still clenches tightly. 

The strange man pulls away gently, “Don’t want you to get nauseous,” he explains, before blinking into thin air and reappearing a second later next to Grace and Pogo. 

“B-but how?” Diego stutters in shock. “You left a year ago, why-how?” 

Another loud crack of thunder, this time actual thunder, makes the kids jump in surprise, and rain starts pouring heavily down on their heads. 

Five gestures to the door. “We can speak inside.” 

*****************************************************

In the kitchen Five rummages the cabinets for coffee, muttering on about Reginald’s distaste for the stuff. 

“Explain yourself.” Luther demands, slamming his open palm against the table. It creaks under his enormous strength. 

Five turns around with an arched eyebrow. He’d forgotten Luther’s ‘I’m number one’ shtick. “Right.” he rubs at his temple. He’s admittedly still a little hungover from the previous night. “I time traveled too far into the future and ended up stranded there for a few years-” 

“How long?” Allison asks, squinting her eyes at him with clear suspicion. 

Five rakes a hand through his hair. “Seventeen years.” He takes the papers out of the yellow envelope Pogo hands him and frowns. “I guess dear old dad knew more than he let on.” At least the man had made it easy for Five to take custody of everyone and the estate being in his name means they won’t have to relocate, another thing he doesn’t need to worry about. 

“It’s awful convenient,” Klaus leans his elbows against the table-something Reginald would have scolded him for, if he were still alive. “You showing up right when dad decides to croak. Does that make you the Daddy now?” he wiggles his brows. 

Five grimaces. “Don’t call me that again.” 

Klaus laughs. 

“Listen, just because you look a _little_ like Five,” Allison starts, though she must admit to herself, he actually looks _a lot_ like their missing brother. 

Same strong jaw line, a bit taller but still sporting that thin frame, though his shoulders are broader now. Same dark thick eyebrows, the long nose and most striking of all: those bright green eyes, still just as sharp and inquisitive as she remembers them. 

Regardless, she continues, “It doesn’t mean you’re our brother. We all have powers-” she stops, turns to Vanya momentarily, “Well, most of us,” she amends, ignoring the way her sister shrinks further into herself. “What’s to say some strange man doesn’t have the same powers as our Five?” 

Allison, for all her Daddy’s girl, gets what she wants when she wants it attitude, has always been smarter than she let on. Five gives her a knowing, too wide grin-one she’s all too familiar with, and says, “When we were ten years old you and I decided to sneak out and take a train to Times Square in the middle of the night. On our way back we got off at the wrong stop and you rumored a taxi cab driver into taking us back before Dad could figure out we’d left.” 

She bites her bottom lip and furrows her brows. “Why did we sneak out?” she persists. 

Five pauses and the smile fades into something more gentle, something akin to nostalgia. “M&M’s. But the stupid store was closed. We got crepes at a cart instead and you had to rumor the guy into not questioning why two ten year olds were alone in Times Square after midnight.” 

Allison sucks in a breath. She remembers how excited they’d been. She also remembers the fear of being caught by Reginald as they made their way back to the Umbrella Academy. Most of all, she remembers thinking how worth it the risk had been. “Fine,” she clears her throat to keep any emotion at bay, “You’re Five. Now what? Why did you even come back?” 

The question stings more than he’d ever admit out loud or privately to himself. He spent a grueling seventeen years, nearly two _decades_ , desperately trying to come back home, desperate to stop the apocalypse and save his family. 

But he can’t exactly tell any of them that. They’re _children_. He’s not here to warn them, as if they could help him somehow prevent the nightmarish hell he lived through. 

Five is here to make sure the apocalypse never has a chance to occur, period. 

Step one was getting rid of Reginald Hargreeves. 

Step two? 

“To raise you little scoundrels into half decent adults, I suppose.” 

The next four years are going to be extraordinarily...long, Five can tell. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *all time travel related gibberish i took from good old Wikipedia

He hadn't realized what parenthood would entail. 

His siblings are all teenagers, after all, it's not as though he's changing diapers and heating up formula. Grace, thank God, takes care of preparing meals and Pogo deals with their home schooling lessons. 

Five stares up at the ceiling from his bed, lost in thought. 

It's been nearly a week now since Reginald's passing, since Five's return and things are...awkward, at best. 

Five is so used to going without food for such long stretches of time that he's skipped nearly every single one of their gatherings at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner-though he did manage to finally sit down with the children for dinner earlier tonight. 

With Reginald gone there was no longer a need for everyone to sit up straight and at their assigned seats quietly anymore. But they did so anyway; used to their ingrained routine. 

Klaus had chewed on his lip for a full minute before finally spitting out a question, breaking the silence. "So what's the future like?" 

Five should have been expecting the question, but it had still made him nearly choke on his soup. "Boring." he'd replied, after getting himself under control. It's not as though he could answer truthfully: Petrifying. Lonely. Ashes. 

The children had all shared looks among one other but otherwise hadn't tried to pry, and dinner had carried on as usual. 

Five rolls over in his bed now, hours later, and stares at the alarm clock on his bedside. The green numbers in the dark read: 2:49 AM. He practically bores a hole through the alarm clock with his eyes. He's so tired. He wishes he could sleep, but he's just so on edge. 

A rattling in the hallway has Five up and out of bed within seconds. He blinks into the end of the hall, near the steps, hyper alert for signs of any danger. It can't be the Temps Commission, he thinks, it's much too early for that mess. They shouldn't even be aware that he's gone AWOL, not yet. 

He sees a shadow creeping downstairs and he's there in a flash, a knife drawn and ready to attack the intruder, only to come to an abrupt halt at the sight of the terrified and tear stained face which greets him. "Diego?" he quickly puts his weapon away and takes a step back, trying his best to seem less threatening. "What's wrong? What are you doing out of bed?" 

Diego wipes his face roughly, tries to look tough with a wobbly lip, and stutters out a faint, "N-n-nothing, leave me a-a-lone." 

Five frowns. "Is it-did you have a nightmare?" It's been so long he'd almost forgotten how Diego's nightmares would often send him into Graces arms when they were children. He shouldn't be all that surprised that they're still a reoccurring thing. Not with the year his siblings have had. 

Diego shakes his head, but the tear keep coming. "N-n-no." 

Grace is at her charging station, completely immobile at the moment; there's no way she's coming to the rescue any time soon. Unfortunate. 

"Right." Five clicks his tongue. He's never been any good at this. Whatever this is. "Come on, I need some coffee." he makes his way to the kitchen, listening for the hesitant steps that mean his brother is following, and starts the coffee maker he had Grace buy a couple of days ago, on her weekly trip to the grocery store. "Want some?" 

Diego shakes his head again from his position at the doorway. 

"Right, coffee's not good for kids." Five peaks inside the fridge for a moment before his eyes settle on the milk carton. "Ok, hot chocolate it is, then." he thinks he saw a box containing little packages full of cocoa in one of the top cabinets earlier in the day. "Do we have marshmallows?" he wonders out loud. 

"Yeah." 

Five turns to Diego. He hadn't actually been expecting a response. "Good." he clears his throat and pours milk into a small pot to boil. "Can you get 'em for me?" 

He watches from the corner of his eye as Diego rushes to make himself useful. 

A few moments later they sit across from each other with their respective mugs held close. It's past three in the morning now-the caffeine probably isn't going to help Five find sleep tonight. 

"You're not um," Diego clasps his mug tight and against his chest. It's warm and comforting. "Not gonna' run away again, right?" he looks down at the fluffy white marshmallows melting in his cup. 

"No." There isn't a single hint of indecision Diego can detect, and it calms the voice in his head that's screaming but everyone leaves eventually. 

It's hard to believe Five fully. The proof is in the pudding-isn't that the phrase? But Diego wants to believe that he'll stay. Chooses to believe it, for now. "Ok." 

"You should go to sleep." Five can see the fear rising in his little brother's eyes at the mention of sleep and quickly backpedals. "Or uh, I have some research I'm working on, in my room, if you wanted to join me?" 

They end up atop Five's bed; there are papers and books spread across his sheets, and a legal pad full of his messy handwritten notes on the subject, not to mention his own mathematical equations and formulas. 

"What the hell is a temporal paradox?" Diego asks, picking up a research paper. 

Five makes a face, not looking up from the book he's reading. "Would you actually understand if I explained it to you or would I just be wasting my breath?" 

Diego glares at him. "You're still an asshole, you know that, right?" 

Five sighs, rolling his eyes. Casual conversation had never come easy to him, even before the whole apocalypse thing... "Fine, in physics, temporal paradoxes fall into two broad groups: consistency paradoxes, which are exemplified by the grandfather paradox; and causal loops. You with me so far?" 

Diego yawns so loudly it pops his jaw. 

Five arches a judgey brow. 

Diego shakes his head, laying down on what little free space Five still has on his bed. "Keep going though, it's good white noise." 

Five scoffs softly. "Right. I guess I'll start with the grandfather paradox. It's the inconsistencies that emerge through time traveling when you change the past in any way." 

Diego nods, eyes drooping. "How come it's called that, though?" 

"Good question," Five ignores the way Diego smiles at the unintended praise. "It gets it's name through the common story often used to describe the paradox itself. I'm sure you've heard some kind of variation of it before. Someone travels to the past and kills their own grandfather before the conception of their father or mother, which consequently prevents the time traveler's existence." 

"That would blow." 

"Yes. It would." Five can't help the little half grin that pulls at his lips. "Anyway, despite its description, the grandfather paradox isn't limited exclusively to preventing one's own birth. It includes any action which alters the past, considering the fact that there will always be contradiction whenever the past becomes different to what it once was. Now, a casual loop is a theoretical proposition-" Five pauses mid ramble when he realizes the background noise is Diego snoring softly into his pillow. 

And drooling, definitely drooling, Five confirms, as he tucks his blanket around his brother's sleeping form and gets up to turn off the light. 

He leaves a small lamp on so that he can continue to read and make notes, occasionally glancing down at Diego to make sure he's alright. 

Maybe two hours pass before Five feels a warm weight against his hip. He freezes, stiff for a second, until realizing it's Diego, who's rolled over in his sleep and right into his work space. Five huffs, tries as carefully as he can to untangle himself without waking up the fourteen year old, to no avail. 

Diego whines, his fingers grabbing onto Five's too big night shirt and holding on for dear life, eyes scrunching up. 

Five drops the book onto his lap and shoves his research aside and off the bed. "Shh, shh, it's ok, everything's alright, you're ok." his hand hovers over Diego's forehead and he gulps nervously. Human contact is almost as hard-if not harder-than having to make civil conversation. 

Finally, he lets his fingers fall atop the crown of Diego's head and slowly he slides them through the boy's coarse wavy hair, the way he remembers seeing Grace do so when they were much younger and more vulnerable. 

Diego relaxes into the touch and his grip on Five loosens slightly, though he doesn't let go entirely. 

Five sighs quietly; his eyes are starting to feel heavy, much too heavy to keep them open for much longer. 

So, he thinks, more lost than he really ought to feel, this is what parenthood entails, huh? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanku all for reading and for all the awesome comments on chapter one, i really appreciate it :)


	3. Chapter 3

"It's been almost two weeks." Luther states one morning over breakfast. "We need to resume training. We haven't been on a single mission since-" he pauses, "since Dad." 

Five spreads butter across his whole wheat toast before responding. "That's because you're children; this superhero shit is nonsense." he takes a vicious bite, the bread crunching loudly between his teeth. 

"It's not nonsense, Five, you better than anyone else should know that!" Allison sits up, her eggs forgotten. "We're helping people." 

"We should let the police do their jobs and stop interfering." Five retorts calmly. 

Diego scoffs. "The police can't do half the stuff we can!" 

Klaus rolls his eyes, refusing to participate in the asinine conversation. He hates his powers; as far as he's concerned he'd be happy with their last mission having been just that: their last. 

Five downs the rest of his coffee and slams the empty cup down on the table, making everyone jump slightly. "We're done with the hero crap. In four years, when you're all adults, you can make your own decision as to whether or not you'd like to pursue a career in being a nitwit with their undies on the outside of their pants, but until that time comes, I am your legal guardian, and I forbid it." 

"That's not fair!" Luther yells, outraged. He was a born superhero. Dad said so. 

Five turns a sharp eye on the blonde. "You know what's not fair? Ben's life being cut so short because Dad thought it was alright to put the lives of his own children at risk for the fucking public." he spits out. 

The room goes so quiet a dropped pin could be heard in that very moment. 

Finally, Luther huffs, fists clenched at his sides. "Ben wouldn't have died if you hadn't been a selfish, self centered prick and abandoned the team!" 

Five reels back like he's been decked. He blinks out of the dining room, leaving only a remnant of blue light where he once sat. 

Klaus groans. "Jesus H. Christ bruder of mein, way to go for the jugular? Now he's gonna unadopt us and ditch this place, just watch." 

Vanya gets up from her chair, ignoring the way the others turn toward her, and quickly makes her way upstairs, taking the steps two at a time, a nervous energy thrumming beneath her skin. She stands at his door, the same one she's stood at almost every day since he left, waiting for him to come back, and knocks softly. 

She holds her breath, only exhaling in relief when she hears footsteps inside. Five answers the door, sighing. "You're not here to convince me to let them continue to play superhero, are you?" 

Vanya shakes her head. "I just...wanted to make sure you hadn't left again." 

"I'm not leaving." He promises, guilt gnawing at him. That's two kids in two weeks he's had to reassure. 

"Good." Vanya looks down at her feet and presses down the hem of her skirt with sweaty palms. 

Five sighs. "I was about to head over to the library, want to come with?" 

Vanya tags along like a limpet, keeping close as she can, and though he finds it a little irritating, it's also kind of nice, in a devastating way. 

In the library, he peruses through the shelves until coming across something by John Earman. They spend at least an hour in companionable silence, reading their respective books, before Vanya says anything.   
"My um, my meds are almost out. Dad used to get my refills at the pharmacy downtown." 

Five hadn't been aware she was on anything. "Meds?" 

Vanya nods. "Mood stabilizers, I think. They're from my psychiatrist." 

"Right. Don't worry, I'll take care of that today." he looks down at the watch on his wrist and nods to himself. It's still early in the day, he has time to get to the pharmacy. 

"Thank you." 

"Don't mention it." Five doesn't prod but he does wonder why on Earth Vanya of all people needs mood stabilizers. She's always been the more level headed of the bunch-maybe it's the drugs, he thinks. 

"Um," Vanya hesitates. 

Five encourages her to go on. "I don't bite." 

"About," Vanya gulps. "what Luther said...I'm sure he didn't mean it. Ben's death is still fresh." 

Five lets out a breath. Luther is probably right. If he hadn't left Ben might still be alive. If he hadn't fucked up his calculations (once again) then maybe he could have traveled a little further back and saved Ben. 

He must be quiet for too long because Vanya continues. "How did you know that Ben was dead?" she can't recall Five having asked any of the siblings about their missing Number Six. Though it's just as well Pogo might have informed him. Adults were always having secretive conversations. 

"Oh, well," Five leans back in his chair. "I read about it, actually. In the future." 

Vanya stares at him, clearly curious to know more about his cryptic time in the future, but too shy to ask out loud. 

He decides to throw her a bone. "You end up writing about it in your novel. I found a copy." In the rubble. But she doesn't need to know the finer details. 

"I write a novel?" Vanya blinks, surprised. 

"You do. It's pretty good writing, Vee. You talk a lot of shit about Dad in it. I enjoyed it." He smirks. 

Vanya's face goes beet red at the compliment. "Really?" 

Five nods confidently. "Cross my heart." 

*******************************

"The children have resumed training." Pogo tells Five the next morning, when he enters the kitchen in search of some coffee. 

Five huffs out an aggravated sigh. "All of them?" 

"All with the exception of Klaus and of course, Vanya." 

"Right." Five folds his arms over one another across his chest. "Just...make sure they don't kill each other out there, would you? I need to head into town-I forgot to pick up Vanya's refills yesterday." he narrows his eyes. "Pogo, do you know why the hell Dad has Vanya seeing a psychiatrist, and why that doctor felt the need to prescribe her mood stabilizers?" 

Pogo shakes his head. "I'm afraid not, Master Five." 

Pogo isn't fooling anyone-much less Five, who can spot a lie from a mile away, but for the time being he decides to let it go. "I see. Well, I'll be back in a bit, then." He leaves the conversation with a sour taste in his mouth, and it's certainly not due to the way he takes his coffee: bitter black. 

**************************

He's been so preoccupied with time travel in the past couple of weeks Five hasn't given himself any time to look into what it is exactly that leads to the apocalypse. 

He has plenty of time, of course, but that doesn't mean he should be dawdling, either. 

He takes the bus downtown. He could have easily blinked there and back home within minutes, but Five is trying his best not to unnecessarily use his abilities. His powers make him a larger blip on the Temps Commissions radar than he'd like. 

"I'm here to pick up for Vanya Hargreeves. A refill." He tells the pharmacy tech at the front desk, once he's reached the front of the line. 

The tech makes ogling eyes at him, smiling coyly and twisting a long strand of hair along her finger as she rings him up. 

The flirting makes him uncomfortable. It reminds him too much of The Handler, and the hungry way in which she constantly pursued him for the last two years. He's not looking forward to ever running into that woman again, though he knows it's an inevitable consequence born of his actions. And he hates it. 

He clears his throat. "I wanted to ask a question about these meds. Can I speak to the pharmacist?" 

The young woman looks disappointed as she nods and tells him to wait a few minutes for the pharmacist to come out. 

He stands to the side of the counter, as far away from the tech as he can manage, and eventually the pharmacist, a woman in her late forties with graying roots, bottle coke glasses and a warm smile greets him. "How can I help you today?" 

Five returns the smile automatically, without really meaning to. She kind of reminds him of Delores... 

"I recently took custody of my little sister, and well," he frowns. "I haven't really been a constant in her life for the last few years and our late father didn't really leave me much in the way of instructions. I didn't even realize she was taking medication until she asked me to pick up her refill." There's really no need to share so much information with this stranger, Five thinks, but something about her makes him feel oddly safe. "I wanted to ask if it's normal for a fourteen year old to be on these? From what I can recall Vanya's never been a rowdy or particularly loud kid. I just can't imagine why she'd be on mood stabilizers." 

The pharmacist, Samantha Li, according to the name tag on the pocket of her white coat, takes a look at the prescription and hums curiously. "These are anti anxiety meds," she tells him. "She's a bit young to be on this high of a dose, but if I were you I would speak to the doctor prescribing these in the first place." she takes out a pen and paper and scribbles down the name and number of the psychiatrist. "I would also speak to her therapist if possible." 

Five nods, taking the piece of paper gratefully. "Thank you, I will." 

Li gives him a sympathetic smile, "And hey, don't beat yourself up just yet, parenting's a bitch and a half, trust me, you'll find your stride soon enough." 

"We'll see." 

God, he hopes so. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for continuing to read my ridiculously self indulgent fic <3


	4. Chapter 4

Five purchased a burner with a limited amount of minutes every month, per Pogo's insistence, a couple of days ago. 

"What if you're away and something happens?" Pogo had asked, knowingly, which had been enough to convince him to get one.

The sudden shrill ring of the cellphone in his coat pocket nearly sends him into a mild cardiac arrest, the first time he receives a call. He's in the back of a near empty bus, on his way back from the pharmacy, so thankfully nobody is there to witness Five jump about a foot into the air before he flips open the stupid gadget and answers with a curt. "What?" 

"Master Five, I'm afraid some of the children attained injuries during training. Grace is taking care of them at the moment, but I do believe it is prudent you return to the house at once." Pogo informs him. 

Five curses. "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on them?" He lets out a long sigh. He knows he shouldn't blame Pogo. Reginald used to make them run themselves ragged during training sessions, and he wasn't one to fuss over any of the children if some serious injury came of it, either. Five knows Pogo probably tried his best to make sure they didn't push themselves to their limits. "I know it's not your fault, I'm just..." he sighs again, jamming the end of his thumb against his throbbing skull. "Tired. I'll be there in a second." he hangs up without another word and blinks off the bus and to the infirmary in an instant. 

He frowns at the sight that greets him. "How did I know it would be you two?" 

Diego and Luther are sat side by side atop the medical examination table, visibly irritated by the other's presence, Grace between them, treating their injuries. 

"It was Luther's fault!" Diego's quick to throw his brother under the bus, wincing when Grace swipes the cut on the side of his forehead with an alcohol swab and places a butterfly band aid over it. 

"He threw a knife at my _head_!" Luther exclaims. 

"If I'd aimed at your head it would'a hit your head, stupid." 

Five rolls his eyes at the bickering. Number One and Number Two were constantly doing this back and forth, he remembers, even before he'd left the Academy. He walks over to Luther, whose upper left arm has been wrapped in gauze, and inspects the surrounding area; there's blood on the sleeve of his t-shirt. "Jesus, did he _stab_ you?" 

" _Lightly_." Diego defends himself, making puppy eyes at Grace as she spreads antibiotic ointment on more of his bumps and bruises. "It's only a scratch, Luther's being a big dumb baby." he adds. 

"So this wasn't from training, then, you two had an all out brawl?" 

Luther huffs. "I wouldn't say all out. Diego would be dead by now if I had used even half my strength on his short twiggy body." 

Diego glares at him. "Say that to my face." 

"I just did, you moron." 

Five grabs Luther by the collar of his shirt, pulling him off the table and away from Diego. "Enough." He turns to Grace. "Any mortal wounds I should be aware of?" 

Grace shakes her head. "Nothing that won't heal in a few days, with proper care and rest." she reports. 

"Good. You're done with this one?" he asks, lightly shaking Luther by the shirt. 

Grace nods. 

"Great. You're coming with me." he blinks, taking Luther with him before the boy can utter any complaints. They land in the court yard and Luther groans. 

"You can teleport with other people?!" he shakes off the nausea and stares at Five in begrudging awe. 

"I know you lead the others in training this morning." Five ignores Luther's question, an irritated frown tugging his lips downward. 

"So what?" Luther holds his gaze belligerently. 

"So," Five can feel his headache turning into a migraine. "I told you yesterday to cut that shit out. You're not soldiers, you're not fucking super heroes. You, Luther, are a child. And that's ok, you don't need to be anything else right now." 

"Dad said-" 

"Dad's not here anymore." Five cuts him off. "You don't need to keep following his strict bull shit rules and regime. No one is going to lock you away if you don't. I promise you, Luther." 

Luther stands his ground. "They aren't bull shit. And Dad's never locked any of us away, what the hell are you talking about?!" 

"Dad never locked your ass up?" Klaus startles the both of them. He must have been there the whole time, hiding behind the statue of Ben, lighting up. "Lucky Luther." he laughs. 

"What are you talking about?" Luther frowns. 

Klaus takes a drag and exhales the smoke. "Dad used to drag me kicking and screaming into the mausoleum for individual training-of course, he finally stopped a couple of months ago when he realized that wasn't doing squat, he said, and I quote, 'Number Four, what a great disappointment you've turned out to be'." He mocks the posh way in which Reginald spoke and goes on, trying to sound casual. "But before that it was all sunshine and rainbows with dear old dad and that hell hole of a place." 

Luther folds his arms across one another, wincing when he jars his injured shoulder. "That was to help you with your powers, it's not Dad's fault you couldn't rise to the occasion." 

Klaus shrugs, takes another drag. "Whatever floats your boat, boy wonder. I'm just saying, I agree with Daddy Five over here." 

Five wants to snap at him not to call him that, but there's something very vulnerable about the way Klaus is holding himself at the moment, and he can't find it in himself to do it. "Thank you." he forces himself to say, instead, and then takes the still lit cigarette butt out of Klaus' mouth and crushes it under his heel. "These are bad for you." he comments. 

"Hey, that was my last one." Klaus whines. 

Five arches an eyebrow. "I doubt that." 

Klaus sticks his tongue out at him and scurries back inside when he realizes clouds have started to gather above them. It looks as if another rain storm is coming. 

"I'm not going to stop training, and I'm going to keep going on missions, whether or not you approve." Luther tells Five, the moment they're alone again. 

A bolt of lightening shines not too far away and a moment later the crack of thunder can be heard. 

"Is that right?" 

"Yeah, and Allison and Diego aren't stopping either, even without you and Klaus we're still a team. We don't need you guys to fight crime." 

Five can feel his eye throbbing in tune with the pulsating migraine. "I'm not Dad. I'm not giving you any missions to go on." 

Luther scoffs indifferently. "It doesn't matter. We'll figure out a way to keep saving people." 

Rain starts pitter pattering down on their heads. 

"We'll talk about this tomorrow. Go inside, I don't want your bandages getting wet." Five relents, walking past Luther and holding open the door for the boy. 

Luther blinks, surprised. The Five he remembers wouldn't have given up so easily. He would have argued circles around Luther in the pouring rain until the sun came back out, and then some. He doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth, however, choosing to listen for once, and hurries indoors. 

**********************

Hours later, Allison barges straight into Five's room, a little past midnight. 

She inadvertently catches him changing out of his dress shirt and presumably into pajamas and ducks her head immediately, embarrassed, but not before catching sight of Five's torso. 

Her brother has always been relatively thin, but Allison swears she can count his ribs. There are scars she wants to ask about, but she holds her tongue. That's not what she's here to talk about right now. 

Five huffs, annoyed, and buttons up his shirt, leaving the cuffs undone. "Knock next time." He reprimands. He'd left his door unlocked in case Diego had a nightmare and decided to seek him out. It was still storming terribly outside, thunder crashing onto Earth and echoing loudly, and he knows for a fact that Diego's nightmares were always worse during storms. He hadn't been expecting Allison to just walk right in without warning. 

"I will." she promises, and that's the closest thing to an apology he's going to get, he thinks, as she strolls the rest of the way into his room and takes a seat at his desk. "We need to talk." she says, like they're in a business meeting or something. 

Five plops down on his mattress with an oomph. His head is still killing him. He'd spent the rest of the day trying to get into contact with Vanya's psychiatrist, without any success. He's going to need to visit the actual medical facility in person and they're not open until Monday, and so that's going to have to wait, unfortunately. 

"What about?" he leans back, stretching out the creaks in his neck. 

"I could rumor you, you know. Into giving us missions again and into letting us continue with our training." Allison stares at him from across the room, like a threat. 

Five nods. "I'm aware. And I know you're well aware of the fact that I can blink out of this room before you've gotten further than the word 'heard'. So why are you really here?" 

Allison makes a face. "Look, Luther _needs_ this. I know you're an old man now and you probably don't even remember what it's like, being one of us," she starts, unknowingly striking right where it hurts, "But we've been doing this our entire lives, we actually like helping people and taking down bad guys. If Klaus is out, then that's fine, he wasn't exactly the best look out anyway, but Luther, Diego and I are not backing down without a fight." 

Five pinches the bridge of his nose between two fingers, hoping to somewhat alleviate his migraine, to no avail. It feels like someone is using a jackhammer inside of his fucking brain. He must make some kind of noise of discomfort or pain because Allison asks him if he's alright, her tone switching over so that she sounds genuinely worried. 

"I'm fine." Five grinds out. "It's just a migraine." 

Allison looks at him for a moment before making a decision. "I heard a rumor," she says the words slowly, giving Five a chance to leave if he pleases, but he doesn't. "That your migraine was gone." 

And just like that, the pain that's been plaguing him all day dissipates. He knows it's not permanent, but fuck, does the momentary relief help. Five flops down against the mattress and closes his eyes, assuaged. "Thank you." he exhales. Now that his head isn't reverberating incessantly, Five's exhaustion starts to catch up with him, and he has to scrub the sleep out of his eyes. 

He forces himself to sit back up. "Sorry, you were saying?" 

Allison stands up and walks the few steps over to him, closing the distance between them. She gently shoves his shoulder, and the action is so unexpected Five lets himself fall back against the bed. "Go to sleep, you look like shit." she says, not unkindly. "But mark my words, we will continue this conversation tomorrow, old man." 

Five tries his damnest to keep the smile out of his voice when he replies, " _You_ go to sleep; it's past your bedtime, little girl."

Allison lets out a tiny huff, like a chuckle she can't quite suppress, before leaving the room, closing the door quietly behind her. 

Tomorrow morning she's going to make sure he has something _besides_ coffee for breakfast, she decides resolutely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aahh, thank you all for reading and all ur comments <3 i really appreciate it!!! :)


	5. Chapter 5

It's the weekend, which normally doesn't mean much in the Umbrella Academy; it's not as though the children had ever had any days off, after all. 

"Hey Daddy-o, where ya' headed?" Klaus wonders out loud, watching from his position on the couch as Five grabs his coat from the rack and ushers it on. 

"Mall." Five straightens his lapels. 

Klaus sits up, alert. "Wait, what? Mall? Like, _the_ mall?" 

From the other room Allison comes sprinting, her eyes alight with excitement. "Who's going to the mall? I want to come." 

Five arches a brow. Sometimes he forgets he's raising a bunch of repressed teenagers-of course they've never been to a mall. "Sure." he looks at Klaus. "How about you?" 

"I mean, come on, did a dentist invent cotton candy?" 

Five stares at Klaus blankly. 

Klaus grins widely. "The answer is yes. Of course I'm tagging along!" he jumps up, "I just need to get a couple of things from my room, don't leave without me!" 

Allison nods in agreement, "Same!" she yells, as she runs behind Klaus and upstairs. 

After ten minutes go by Five calls to them, impatient as ever. "I don't have all day!" 

It's another five minutes later that they finally gather downstairs, ready to go. Luther and Diego have somehow joined this little day trip of theirs, but Five doesn't bother questioning why or how. He pauses, however, when he realizes someone is missing. "Where's Vanya?" 

The children all stare at one another, confused. "Well," Luther shrugs. "she's not really a part of group activities. She never comes on missions with us." as if that's a sufficient enough explanation. 

Five scoffs. "Since when is the mall considered a mission?" he shakes his head. "One of you go find Vanya and invite her to come with us or we're not going." He's forgotten how often they would exclude Vanya from things as kids. No wonder her novel hadn't shone her siblings in the most flattering light. 

They all bitch and moan, but after three quick rounds of rock, paper, scissors, it's decided Allison should go. She groans, but rushes over to the library, where she'd seen her sister head to after breakfast earlier. 

"Hey, Vanya." she stands, hesitant, at the entrance of their enormous library. 

Vanya startles, looking up from the book she'd been reading. "Oh," she looks surprised. "Uh, hi." Allison doesn't exactly speak to her very often. "Is-is something wrong?" 

"We're all headed to the mall. Do you want to go?" Allison plays with the ends of her curls, not really making eye contact. 

Vanya can tell Allison would rather be anywhere else, talking to anyone else, and that the invite isn't very genuine, and even less enthusiastic. "Everyone is going?" she's shocked they bothered to invite her. 

Allison nods. "Yup. Five is taking us. I think we're taking the car. Anyway, he wants to know if you wanna come. So?" 

Oh, she thinks, so it was Five who'd remembered she exists. "Um," Vanya shakes her head. "No, I'm ok. I wanted to finish this." she excuses herself, holding up the novel in her hands. She doesn't want to ruin everyone elses good time. "But thanks." 

Allison purses her lips and folds her arms across her chest. "You know, that book isn't going anywhere. The mall could get over taken by like, aliens or something tomorrow," she shrugs. "So, you should probably just come with us today. While you still can." 

Vanya drops the book; it lands on the table with a soft _thump_. It's a small smile, the one that graces her face, when she says "Yeah, ok." but a smile none the less, Allison thinks to herself, as they run through the corridors to meet the rest of their siblings. 

*****************************

Five just wanted a couple of new dress shirts. Some slacks. Undergarments and perhaps a new set of pajamas and a pair of slippers. That was really his only purpose for coming to the mall today. 

Having five fourteen year olds tagging along means that what should be maybe a half hour errand turns into a whole day thing. Next time, he's blinking away before any of them can ask him where it is he's headed, Five vows, as Allison drags him to some (way too colorful) store named 'Claire's'. 

Klaus has an absolute field day, trying on all the silly too big glittery pink sunglasses. Allison peruses every single pair of earrings the store has in stock-which is _a lot_ -while the others stand almost too close to Five, in the middle of the place. 

Luther hates the place. It's too 'girly'. Diego wholeheartedly agrees, which is the first time those two have agreed on anything, probably ever. 

Five chuckles faintly. "Children." he mutters under his breath. He walks over to the wall of necklaces and other random jewelry, all too aware of his three shadows sticking right by his side. Delores would like one, Five takes a green emerald necklace and inspects it. It's her favorite color and it really would make her eyes pop, he thinks fondly, his heart aching with sudden longing he'd rather not dredge up so soon, if at all. 

Vanya peaks over his shoulder. "Who's that for?" she asks quietly. He barely hears her over the cacophony of the other customers milling about. 

Diego and Luther stare curiously, waiting for an answer to her question. 

Five clears his throat and quickly puts it back in its place. "Not important." he lies, turning towards Klaus and Allison, who are both in the corner of the store modeling for the store's full length mirror. "Hey, are you prima donas gonna buy anything or can we move on?" 

Klaus and Allison look at him with wide eyed wonder and almost simultaneously yell out, "We can buy stuff?!" 

Five squints at them, as though they're idiots. "Why else would we come all the way to the mall? Pick something out and let's go." 

Klaus ends up bringing about ten different things-nail polish, sunglasses, a yellow boa, bracelets-to the counter, grinning from ear to ear and practically vibrating out of his own skin. 

Allison only brings one thing, a pair of earrings, sapphire blue and bright. "Can I get my ears pierced?" she begs. 

Five doesn't see any harm in it. "Sure." 

She practically squeals with delight. Klaus pouts. "No fair, I want to get my ears pierced." he whines. 

Five shrugs. "Go for it." He allows. "Anybody else?" he asks the other three, all of whom shake their heads almost immediately, balking at even the thought. 

The girl working the counter has Five fill out a couple of liability waivers, since they're both too young to sign for themselves, and less than fifteen minutes later Allison and Klaus officially have pieced earlobes. "Can I get a tattoo, next?" Klaus asks, as they leave the store, swinging his bag of goodies happily. 

Five glances at him from his peripherals. "Sure," he smirks. "When you're eighteen." 

Klaus bumps his shoulder into Five's-they're practically the same height, given that Klaus had always been slightly taller than the rest of them, growing up. "Fiiine." he sighs dramatically, though he can't hide the smile on his face as he skips ahead to join Diego and Luther, who are a few steps behind Allison. 

Vanya remains attached to his hip, quiet as ever, and trying her best to take up as little room and air around her as humanly possible. 

"You can go ahead of me with the others, just stay in sight." Five permits. 

But Vanya simply shakes her head, sticking close by, their footsteps in sync. "I'm ok. Um," she looks down at the ceramic tiles as they walk. "Thank you, for bringing us here. This is nice." 

Without thinking, Five reaches out and wraps his arm around her shoulder, his fingers squeezing just for a moment before letting go again. 

Their next destination ends up being-oddly enough-a toy store. Diego and Luther run over to ooh and aw at the action figures and Lego sets. Klaus finds a ping pong table at the back of the store to entertain himself, and Allison pretends to be in a big annoyed huff at having to stop at a place meant for little kids, but Five catches her staring longingly at the American Girl dolls. 

Vanya still isn't too keen on leaving Five's side, and so now, with both of his sisters hanging off of him like limpets, Five is forced to "explore" further inside of the store, in hopes that the girls will follow his lead. 

When they were much younger, Five remembers catching Vanya in her room, playing a game all by herself. She'd cut up a bunch of toilet paper into long thin strips and had been making car noises for them, crashing them into one another and speed racing them across her floor. 

Which is why he leads them over to a display race track. Vanya peers at it curiously, watching the cars zoom past her. Five nods toward the shelves of toy cars and tells her to take as many as she can carry. 

"Oh, I-" Vanya gulps. "That's ok, you don't have to get me anything." she rushes out nervously. 

Five arches a brow. "I want three blue cars, a yellow one-make it a taxi cab-at least one red Mercedes, a school bus, and a pink buggy. You've got," he looks down at his wrist watch. "Fifteen minutes to meet us at the counter." and then he walks off, with only Allison in tow, as Vanya stares at the back of him for a moment before running over to the cars and looking for everything he'd requested. 

Allison looks back briefly, seeing a light in her sisters eye she can't say she's ever really seen before, and for some reason, it makes her smile. Just a bit. "You're not gonna' get me to buy anything." she tells Five, even as she follows him to the American Girl doll section of the store. 

Five shrugs, "Didn't think I could." he browses through the various collections, looking for just the right one, before settling on a Truly Me doll with long dark curly hair and a shiny blue jacket over a tutu looking skirt. 

Allison sneaks a peek over his shoulder. "I'm not a little girl anymore." she insists, even though her heart flutters when Five ignores her and puts the doll in his shopping cart anyway. 

"I know. Help me pick out some accessories, I'm awful at this." he says, reaching for a neon green dress on the wall. 

Allison vetoes it immediately. "That's so ugly, green's not her color." she takes the box next to it instead. It's a pretty pink dress with white tennis shoes to match and a bracelet for the doll. "This would look better." she shows Five. 

"Great," he takes it from her hands and throws it into the cart. "Anything else?" 

Allison stares at the wall pensively. "Maybe a raincoat?" she puts that into their cart as well, only as she's organizing the boxes so the doll doesn't get squished, does she realize what Five is doing. She huffs, glaring up at him with a pout that looks more like a smile. "Sneaky." 

Five shrugs. "I don't know what you're talking about." he waves her forward. "Get her a pair of pajamas so we can start heading out. I still need to find a Macys." 

Allison stops and stares at him in awe. "We're going to Macy's. As in like, to shop? For clothes? Clothes that aren't _uniforms_?" 

Five hadn't really thought too much about the fact that all their clothes were Umbrella Academy related. Even now, the kids are wearing their Umbrella Academy grey training sweats, so as to avoid being too widely recognized in public. "I suppose."

He gathers everyone in line and slowly the cart fills up so high that other parents start to look at Five with judgey faces-probably thinking he's spoiling the children-especially when Klaus runs over with a miniature ping pong table and Five allows it without batting an eye. 

*****************************************

Their trip to Macy's is...interesting. 

"I need to get a few things, so I'll be in the men's section right over there. Meet me by that cash register," he points to the one they're standing near. "In one hour. The number of kids I go back home with is all dependent on your own time management. Got it?" 

They all split up after that-they remind Five of contestants on a reality television show having just been told they have ten minutes to grab what they can from the department store and it's theirs. 

He's most surprised by the fact that Vanya is one of the first to run off-but it's a pleasant type of surprise. 

The only one of the children who doesn't depart is Luther, who trudges along behind Five with a sour look on his face. 

"Buying us off isn't gonna' work, you know." he says, as Five browses through the white dress shirts, looking for one in his size. 

"Drats. Foiled again. There go my evil plans." Five replies in a deadpan tone, snapping his fingers. 

Luther glares at him. 

"Anyway, I think flannel would probably suit you." Five goes on, throwing a few shirts into the cart and moving onto slacks. "Though knowing you, you'd go for turtle necks and khakis, I bet." 

Luther's glare only intensifies. "I don't need any new clothes. My uniform represents the Umbrella Academy and everything we stand for as super heroes. Hey, are you listening to me?" 

From the very corner of his eye, Five has caught just a glimpse of an agonizingly familiar face... 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKU GUYS FOR READING AND COMMENTING <333333333


	6. Chapter 6

Five is quiet on the drive home and quiet as Luther helps the rest of his siblings carry everything they purchased at the mall inside, and even quieter over dinner later that night. 

The children actually talk to one another during dinner, however, which is a nice change of pace from the awkward silent dinners they're all accustomed to. Diego goes on and on about the giant Lego set he got and how he might stay up all night assembling it. Luther bets he can build his set faster. And Klaus is so excited about all of his new clothes that he's already wearing a pair of his new skinny jeans and a leopard print sweater, even though he's not planning on going anywhere. 

Allison clears her throat and the others go silent for a moment. "Hey," she leans against the table, her hair falling over her shoulder. "Today was really fun." she says, looking at Five. "So I hafta' ask: what's up your butt? You look like you saw a ghost or something-no offense, Klaus." 

Klaus shrugs, focusing mainly on eating extra carefully so that his new top doesn't get dirty. 

Five doesn't look up from his plate, continuing instead to stir his soup listlessly. He hasn't even taken a single bite; it must be cold by now, Allison thinks. 

"Five!" she half shouts, in order to get his attention. 

"Huh?" Five finally looks at her.

Allison frowns, starting to really worry, suddenly. Five is normally so sharp and attentive. "I asked if you're ok, you're acting weird. Even for you." 

"I'm fine. Just tired." 

"Bull shit." Luther rolls his eyes. "You started acting weird at Macy's." he turns to the others. "He was staring at something-or someone, I didn't get a chance to see-but he was staring real hard, and when I managed to get his attention again that's when he got super quiet." 

Vanya speaks up, which is so unlike her that everyone stares. "Who did you see? Was it...someone from the future?" she hazards a guess. "You look sad." 

"I-" Five looks down at his soup. He's not very hungry, even though he'd skipped breakfast this morning, and hadn't had lunch with the kids when they got back home earlier in the day. He knows his siblings are all curious about the future and what it is exactly he was up to in it for the past seventeen years. He doesn't blame them-would, in fact, worry if their interests weren't at least a little bit piqued. 

But he also knows he needs to choose his words carefully. So as not to reveal the whole of the truth. 

"I thought I saw someone from the future." he concedes. "But it was just a trick of the light." 

The mannequin had been wearing sequins and a gaudy wig but it had looked so much like his Delores that his heart had actually stopped beating in his chest and the entire world had come to an abrupt halt momentarily. Seeing her-or what he'd thought was her-there in broad daylight had brought back some fairly unpleasant memories of the apocalypse. He's been trying his damnest to push them back into the recesses of his mind ever since, with little success. 

"Who?" Diego asks. 

"Doesn't matter." 

"Was it maybe a girlfriend?" Diego teases. "Did grumpy old Five actually get himself a girlfriend in the future?" The others laugh at the thought, except Vanya, who sees the way Five's face morphs into something like hurt, if only for a flicker. 

"It was, wasn't it?" Vanya frowns sadly. 

The others stop laughing and balk at Five. 

"Wait, you had a girlfriend in the future?!" Allison sits up. "Where is she now? Did you-" she pauses, realization dawning slowly. "You left her behind, didn't you?" 

Five puts the cloth on his lap down on the table, next to the uneaten soup and gets up, pushing his chair back in. "It's been a long day. I'm going to bed." he wants to blink upstairs; it's the fastest way. But he needs to stop using his powers so frivolously, and so that means he has to deal with several pairs of eyes burning holes into the back of his head as he makes his way out of the dinning room and heads for the stairs. 

***********************

He dreams about her that night. 

He dreams about her and about the apocalypse, about the burning buildings, the ashes, the taste of them, that refuse to leave his tongue. He dreams about his siblings, their bodies scattered in front of the Academy and the God awful smell of rotting flesh permeating his nostrils. He dreams about the horribly frigid cold winters and the unbearably hot summers and how Delores had stayed beside him through it all, the ups and the downs. 

Five wakes up in a cold sweat, chest heaving, ash in his mouth, an awful ache in the hollow of his rib cage. It's pitch black, but nowhere near as dark as the nights he had spent in the future, afraid and huddled underneath mountains of rubble, crying for his family night after night after night. 

He's shaking, he realizes, ashamed of his own weakness. It's been two years, Five tells himself, in an attempt at reassurance, two years since he was last there, in that pit of utter despair and helplessness. 

He ends up roaming the halls aimlessly, until he finds himself downstairs in the kitchen. He should be hungry-ravenous, in fact-given that he didn't eat anything throughout the entire day, but his appetite is lacking, and so instead of food, he makes himself a pot of coffee at two in the morning. 

He's in the middle of pouring his first cup when Luther tries to sneak up on him. "It's late. What are you doing up?" Five asks, without bothering to turn around. 

Luther curses silently at being caught. "How'd you do that?" 

"I've been genetically altered by future scientists so that I have eyes in the back of my head. You can't see them, but they're there." 

Luther makes a face, "Ha. Ha. Real funny." 

Five shrugs, "I thought so." he finally turns around, coffee cup in hand, and arches a brow. "So, what are you doing awake this late at night?" 

Luther frowns. "I heard someone skulking down here and wanted to check it out for possible intruders. Didn't realize it'd be Mr. Coffee Addict himself." 

It's Five's turn to frown. "Luther, if you hear strange noises in the house, this late at night again, you come get me, don't check it out all on your own. It could be dangerous." 

Luther scoffs, not paying the warning any heed. "Look, I know Dad-for some ridiculous reason-gave you custody of everything and everyone in this house, but you don't have to take care of me. I've been doing that just fine on my own for years. So thanks, but no thanks." 

"Right, I forgot you're Superman in disguise, my bad." Five takes a sip of his coffee, even though it's still too hot. He sighs into the cup, pondering for a moment. "After midnight snack?" 

Luther blinks at the change in subject, but doesn't deny that he could always use a bite to eat, since his power takes up so much of his energy. "I guess." 

"Grilled cheese?" Five asks. "I make a mean grilled cheese." It's the only thing he knows how to make, but he's not going to tell Luther that. 

Luther nods. "Sure." 

The two work silently, side by side, Luther gathering the supplies and handing them to Five as he butters and toasts the bread, adding cheese between the slices and flipping it over on the stove top. It's not until they're both seated at the table with their grilled cheese sandwiches, that Luther speaks again. 

"So, this girlfriend of yours," he starts nervously, not looking up from his plate. "Did you love her?" 

Five swallows his bite, can feel it drop to his empty belly like lead. "I do." he answers honestly. 

Luther looks up at that, surprised. "Why didn't you bring her back with you?" 

"It wasn't in the cards." Five picks at the crust. 

"That sucks." It's the least combative Luther's been with Five since his return to the past. Sympathetic, even. 

Five nods. "Yeah." he clears his throat, in an attempt to get rid of the stupid waver in his tone. 

"You always look upset when we mention the future to you," Luther notes out loud. "I was trying to figure out why. Is it because of her?" 

Five always forgets how sharp his siblings can be. "She was with me for a long time; leaving her was hard, but I didn't belong there and she doesn't belong here." Five isn't even a quarter of the way done with his grilled cheese but can't stomach to eat the rest. He stands up and throws the rest out in the trash bin, setting the plate inside the dish washer. "It's late." he repeats, for what feels like the millionth time. 

Luther nods. In the time it took Five to eat part of his sandwich he had consumed all three of his. He hands Five his plate so that he can load up the dishwasher and says goodnight. 

Five doesn't bother going to bed after that, staying up the rest of the night to read more books and work on some math formulas. Tomorrow is Sunday, after all, it's not as though he's got much to do until Monday. He can afford to sleep in the next morning. 

***********************

It's nearly half past noon when Vanya comes knocking frantically at his door. 

Five tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he calls for her to come in. He's exhausted, though at least he managed to make some headway in his research. 

Vanya steps inside, hesitantly. She's doing that nervous gesture of hers, where she slides the palms of her hands against her skirt-though today it's a pair of black tights he let her get at the mall. 

"What's wrong?" Five sits up, trying to sound more alert than he feels. 

Vanya looks torn. "I-they told me not to tell but-" she bites her bottom lip. 

Five is out of bed and across the room in an instant. "Where are they?" 

Vanya gulps, and then in one big breath she spills the beans. "Diego got a police scanner and they heard something about a shoot out between police and bank robbers downtown, so they all went to help." 

Five curses. "Even Klaus?" Klaus had been the only one of their siblings excited not to have to play superhero anymore. 

Vanya nods. "I think he was scared that without a lookout something bad would happen." 

"Damn it." Five is so mad his vision is all red. He'd been planning on finally sitting down with the trio and having a real conversation about this whole superhero madness, today. Quickly, he changes out of his pajamas and into a white button down and a pair of black slacks. He shoves his feet into his shoes-a pair of red and black converse Diego had convinced him to buy the day before-and turns to Vanya, having suddenly realized she's been standing there, quiet as a mouse, hovering the entire time. 

"Did they mention the name of the bank?" there are several downtown and he's not entirely as familiar with the area as he once was. 

Vanya nods, happy to be of some use. "I think it was Bank of America. I-can I come?" 

"No." Five stops for a moment to really look at her. She looks like a kicked puppy. "Vanya, I don't want you to get hurt, that's all." he explains. 

He's surprised when instead of an understanding nod, Vanya actually glares at him-however briefly-and looks away. "It's because I'm just ordinary..." she mutters before turning on her heel and scurrying away to her room at the end of the hall. He hears the slam of her door and winces. 

Five hadn't been expecting that.

But, unfortunately, at the moment, he has bigger things to worry about. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven't had a chance to respond to comments but i just wanna say again thank you all for the kind words and i really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my updates! :) <3 
> 
> five goes ham on the next chapter so stay tuned!


	7. Chapter 7

Luther dons his mask and uniform proudly. He's missed wearing the mask, and even more so, he's missed putting the bad guys away. 

"I thought there was a shootout?" Diego says, a little disappointed. He's been trying out this new trick during training and had been excited to show it off. 

Allison grimaces. She can smell the tension in the air among the cops-they're trigger happy and ready to start shooting, despite the fact that there are more than a dozen hostages still inside of the building. "We must have heard wrong." The radio had been crackly at best. They'd heard about a bank robbery with hostages in procession but not much else-she's pretty sure the boys, who haven't seen any action in weeks now, were the ones who automatically assumed it was an all out shootout downtown. 

Klaus feels a little better, knowing no one has started shooting just yet, but still, he hems and haws. "Guys, we really should've told Five where we were going." 

Luther glares at him as they walk past the crowd of police officers, all of whom part ways for the super powered children. The crowd of civilians that's been forming outside of the perimeter starts cheering as they see the Umbrella Academy and several of the news van reporters rush over to take film and capture photos of the group. 

"Five wouldn't have let us go. You heard him, he thinks what we do is _stupid_ -even though he used to be one of us." Luther shakes his head to clear away the look on Five's face last night as he'd confessed his love for a woman stuck seventeen years in a future Luther knows very little about. He's not trying to cause their brother more stress, but this is what he- _they_ -were born to do!

How could Five not see that? 

Allison wishes her powers worked from farther away. She could simply hold up a megaphone from outside and yell: I heard a rumor all the bank robbers surrendered peacefully. 

And the whole thing would be done and done, just like that. 

Having lost Five last year means they also lost their main element of surprise altogether. Now, instead of relying on his teleporting to freak people out, they must rely solely on their own learned prowess of sneaking up on the bad guys. 

They stop to observe the situation from the corner of the room, out of sight. There are seven gunmen they can see from their vantage point. A couple of them are threatening a poor teller into opening each of the drawers in each station and pouring the money out into their backpacks. The teller is shaking something awful, with mascara and tears running down her face, what was once a nicely manicured bun now a loose mess atop her head. 

The other hostages are lying on the floor, several feet apart from one another, faced down. 

One gunman is standing with his back to the door, gun pointed directly at the line of hostages, in case any of them decide to play 'hero', he states, past his black mask. 

The other four gunmen are standing in position, guarding the door, in case the police try and storm the building by force. 

Allison frowns, gnawing on her lip. With Five and Ben on their team, this would be a no brainer, but that's just it. Ben is dead and Five is going to _kill_ them if and when he finds out about this little field trip of theirs...

"If I can get to the one here on the far right, I can rumor him into shooting the rest of his friends, but there's always the possibility of a hostage getting in the way, so that plan's a little dicey." 

Luther looks around them and sees a long, heavy marble counter behind a nervous looking Klaus. "I can run out there with this as cover and throw it at the four guarding the door-their formation is a straight line, so it might work-if anything, it'll give you enough time to sneak past the hostage and rumor the other three men into dropping their weapons?" 

Allison nods in agreement. "That could work." 

Diego glares at the two. "Hey assholes, this is a _team_ , not the Luther and Allison Show." 

Allison rolls her eyes. "While Luther is distracting the four gunmen in the front you can help me incapacitate the three in the back, and if Luther needs backup, do your little darts thing." 

"They're called _knives_." Diego growls out, annoyed at constantly being undermined for his power. 

Luther groans. "We don't have time for this. Everybody ready?" he looks at Klaus. "You just stand here and be lookout." 

"Aye aye." Klaus salutes their leader, though his heart's not really in it. Why do his stupid siblings have to be so damn stubborn? Why can't they just enjoy pretending to be normal like the rest of the world? Klaus had been having a really good week up until this point. 

The plan goes off without a hitch. 

Or at least, that's what Luther would like to tell himself, as he swings the giant marble counter and drops it atop the gunmen guarding the doors. He only manages to get two out of the four men, before the others start shooting at him. 

  
Allison manages to sneak over to the one holding the hostages at gunpoint-"I heard a rumor you couldn't train that gun off your two teammates by the teller." she says, and his eyes go wide under his mask as his hand with the gun automatically goes to aim for the others, leaving the hostages alone. 

Diego is quick to throw his knives at the two men threatening the bank teller behind the glass, but he doesn't aim for any vital organs-they're not killers, after all-and the knives, though painful, do little more than make the men angry, their adrenaline spiking. One of them grabs the bank teller by her hair roughly and pulls her in front of him, shoving his gun to the side of her temple. "I'm gonna blow this bitches fucking brains out unless you super powered _freaks_ don't stop fucking around!" 

Diego and Allison freeze. Luther in the far left of the room has been shot in the leg and is being pinned down by the only remaining guard. The other three lay on the floor, completely unconscious. 

Allison tries to think clearly. She still has the gunman next to her under her control, she could order him to shoot at the man holding the woman at gunpoint, but there's a thick pane of glass in between them and it would take at least two, maybe even three shots, to hit their target, and she knows that teller's brain matter will be splattered onto the other side of the glass long before that second or third shot goes off.

Shit. 

Diego is on the other side of the glass, knives trained on the two men, but the other gunman, despite the knife embedded in his thigh, is still standing and his gun is pointed directly at his head, ready to shoot if he so much as sees the kid twitch a muscle. 

They're at what seems like a Mexican standoff and unfortunately, it's not the Umbrella Academy who have the advantage here. 

Allison can hear the hostages crying at her feet and weight of their lives hangs in their hands and they're shit out of luck, if that's the case, she thinks, her palms starting to sweat, heart beating rapidly.

Reginald would be so disappointed in them. 

Slowly, the two men Luther had surprise attacked with the counter manage to remove the counter from atop their bodies and retrieve their guns. They both aim at Allison while Luther struggles under the weight of the other gunman's foot on his chest. He could break every bone in the mans foot with a simple squeeze, but he knows that will only encourage the others to start shooting at his siblings and the hostages. 

Suddenly, there's a knock, knock, knocking on the door. 

The gunmen briefly trade confused looks. When nobody moves to do anything, the door slowly opens, creaking ominously as it does. One of the men aiming at Allison immediately swivels around and starts shooting like a madman towards the entrance just beyond the corridor. 

Except no one is there. 

"What the fuck..." he mutters, but before he can turn around there's a swoosh of crackling blue and the man goes down in a heap and without a sound. 

Before any of the gunman can do so much as try and _react_ they all start going down, one by one, like dominoes, the fear dying out in their eyes as they do. 

"W-w-what was that?" Diego clutches at the handles of his throwing knives in shock. It had all happened so quickly he's not sure what it is that happened. 

From seemingly out of thin air Five appears in front of Allison, who jumps about a foot in the air and trips over her own two feet, falling on her butt near the hostages. 

"Five, I-" 

Five cuts her off with a _look_. He hasn't uttered a single word, but he doesn't need to. She can tell, just by the set of his jaw, that he is far beyond the realm of pissed off. 

One of the men, who Luther had knocked out earlier, regains consciousness and picks up his gun, aiming it directly at the back of Luther's skull. Five blinks instantaneously but he's not fast enough to stop the man from pulling the trigger. He redirects the bullet, grunting as he snaps the mans neck in one swift motion. 

He stands from his crouch and directs his attention to the hostages. "You're all free to go. _Slowly and in a file line_. And I suggest you all keep your arms up in the air and have the police confirm you're only hostages before stepping foot out of this bank, if you'd like to avoid getting shot or arrested." 

Five turns to Luther. "How bad is it?"

Luther looks down at his leg. There's blood from the bullet wound going from the end of his shorts down to his knee high socks, soaking them. "It was just a graze." It smarts, but it's nothing that won't heal within a few days. 

Five nods. "Where's Klaus?" 

Luther hates that he can't read Five's expression, hates the eerily calm tone of voice he's using right now. "Around the corner..." 

Klaus takes that as his cue to come out. " _Holy shit_ I thought we were all gonna die, thank God you came, what the hell was that weird thing you did? I couldn't even see you, but those assholes just started dropping like flies!" 

Five calls Diego and Allison over, ignoring the questions. He has them stand in a circle and hold hands. Luther folds his arms across his chest, refusing. "Why? We need to go out there-there are news crews vans waiting to see how we saved the day-" 

If looks could kill, Allison thinks, as Five turns his gaze toward Number One, Luther would be eviscerated to a small pulp. " _Hold. Hands_." he orders, voice clipped, jaw clenched tight. 

Luther gulps, reluctantly reaching out to hold hands with his siblings. 

Within several dizzying moments they go from standing in a bank riddled with bullets and gunmen, to standing outside, in the middle of their courtyard. 

Diego groans and immediately throws up, hands on his knees. "What the hell was that?!" 

The nausea passes after a moment, and Allison is glad for it. Klaus holds his stomach to keep it from dropping. "Did Five just blink with all of us?" He looks up at their guardian. "You can do that?" 

"Do you fucking idiots have a _death wish_?!" Five explodes, unable to hold onto the reigns of his anger any longer. He's enraged to the point of shaking, his face absolutely thunderous. 

Allison shrinks back, though still, she tries to defend herself. "We were just trying to help." she mumbles. 

Five thinks he might actually have an aneurysm. "Oh, is that what you were trying to do? Because what I walked straight into was a _shit_ show." 

Luther stands his ground. "We had it under control! We didn't need you to butt in." 

Diego and Klaus don't say a word. Diego is well aware of their screw up, and there's no way he's going down with the wonder twins. 

Five's eyes nearly bulge out of his head, which would be comical in any other situation. "You got _shot_!" he screams. 

"It's just a scratch!" Luther screams right back, annoyed and at his limit. He's tired of being treated like a child. "Today was just a miscalculation in planning, it won't happen again." He lifts his chin defiantly. "You can't stop us from doing what we were meant to do. Just because you ran away from _your_ responsibilities doesn't mean the rest of us are cowards who would be fine with abandoning the team!" 

Five can literally feel his blood pressure rising. "You're grounded. All of you. For _forever_!" 

Luther scoffs. "Grounded?! You can't do tha-" 

"Yes I fucking can and I just fucking did! _In your rooms, now!_ " Five yells, doubling over into an abrupt coughing fit. 

"Five?" Allison takes a step closer, albeit hesitantly.

The coughing sounds painful. 

When he straightens out, insisting he's fine, he wipes his mouth with the cuff of his shirt. 

It turns a startling bright red. 

"Oh shit." Diego gapes at the amount of blood on Five's mouth, chin and sleeve. "I-I'm gonna get mom!" he calls out, already stumbling back into the house for Grace before Five can tell him otherwise. 

Five winces, wrapping an arm around himself. "Fuck."

He'd been running on pure adrenaline, terrified at the thought of losing his brother (again) when that bank robber had raised his gun and pulled the trigger. He hadn't even felt the bullet pierce his skin.

He opens up his coat to reveal a rapidly growing stain of blood, stark red against the white of his shirt. 

Allison gasps, hands going up to cover her mouth. "Oh my God, oh my God!" 

Klaus looks sick at the sight, shifting from foot to foot and whispering to himself. 

Five blinks a couple of times, trying to clear his vision, in vain. He's lost too much blood too quickly, he thinks. He needs a transfusion. He thinks the bullet might still be lodged in his side. Five swallows, hard, scrunching his eyes shut to keep the dizziness at bay. 

He doesn't want to pass out in front of the children. 

It's the thought Five has right before his knees buckle and he feels himself collapse onto his side like a marionette puppet with its strings cut. 

He's expecting his head to hit concrete and his vision to black out, but instead his head meets the palm of a hand, and then the rest of his body is being lifted off of the ground. 

Everything gets a little fuzzy after that. Though Five can swear he hears screaming and fighting and then tears and regret. He can hear the loud _beep beep beep_ of a machine nearby, too. It's an irritating sound. 

Suddenly he's staring up at Grace, whose face is a mixture of relief and concern. 

"Mom..." he half whispers, his voice low and raspy. 

"You're going to be alright." she reassures him, the way only a mother can. With a smile. 

And then everything goes black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u guys for ur continued support!! it means a ton! <3 
> 
> next update will be no later than tuesday (9.15.20)


	8. Chapter 8

"I _told_ you guys we shouldn't have left without telling Five, but nope, nobody ever listens to Klaus!"

"Klaus shut up." Allison glares daggers at her brother. "We know, ok? We know we fucked up." She doesn't need him throwing that in her face.

Diego won't quit pacing the corridor outside of the infirmary where Grace is still operating on Five and it's driving her mad.

"Would you stop that already?" she snaps at him. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were the only one allowed to be worried!" Diego shouts, pacing even harder just to spite her.

Allison balls her fists at her sides and blurts out, "I heard a rumor you couldn't move!'" and Diego freezes in place, mid step.

"I hate when you do that!" Diego curses through clenched teeth, unable to move a single muscle.

Klaus snorts, laughing until Allison directs her angry gaze towards him, and then he shuts up immediately, not keen on being her next victim.

Vanya, who's standing in the far corner by herself, pipes up, "Guys, we shouldn't be fighting right now."

Allison swivels, ready to tell her off, but the look on her sister's face gives her pause. Vanya looks two seconds away from tears.   
Allison deflates.   
She turns back over to Diego and says, "I heard a rumor you could move."

Diego sighs in relief as he regains all motor functions again. He wants to retaliate-he can't stand it when she rumors him-but decides against it for the time being. He doesn't want Five waking up to even more of a commotion. 

He does, however, stop pacing, going over to sit down next to Vanya against the wall, instead. She looks surprised but doesn't say anything, wrapping her arms tighter around her drawn knees. 

Eventually Klaus and Allison both follow suit, and the four children sit and wait with baited breath, for Pogo and their mother to come out and give them some (hopefully good) news. 

***************************

Five wakes up, nearly half a day later, in his own bed. 

  
There's an IV attached to his arm on a stand, and a pulse oximeter on one index finger-he assumes it's connected to Graces' internal systems, since the annoying beeping of the EKG in the infirmary is no longer ringing in his ears. 

He tries to sit up, only for the pain in his side to make itself well and truly known. "Fuck." he winces, sucking in a sharp breathe. 

"Five!" Diego is the first of the bunch to rush to his bedside. "You're finally awake!" 

Five blinks up at him, and then at all of them. Klaus, Allison and Vanya surround his bed as well, and he thinks the injury he sustained must have been pretty crucial for the children's faces all to look so devastated. 

And to be fair, he does feel like complete dog shit. 

"Mom fixed you up." Allison says, eyes bright with unshed tears. "She promised you're going to make a full recovery." 

Five nods. "That's good." his voice is shot. It's a raspy, barely there whisper. 

Vanya quickly offers him a glass of water on the nightstand, a bendy straw at his lips before he can say no. He drinks slowly and gratefully as it soothes his throat. Just the act of drinking water exhausts him, which is irritating to say the least.

"Where's Luther?" he asks, when he's done quenching his thirst. 

"In his room, I think." Allison volunteers. "He carried you inside when you passed out in the court yard," she tells him, looking away. "Luther carried you all the way to the infirmary but when Diego showed up with Grace he set you on the table and left. I haven't seen him since." 

Five grimaces. "How long?" 

She shrugs. "It's been hours." she looks out into the darkness beyond the window pane, surprised. "It's night time now." she notes. 

Five grunts as he forces himself to sit up, grabbing onto the IV stand for support when he hauls himself into a standing position. 

"Y-you're supposed to be resting, mom said it's the only way you'll heal!" Diego says anxiously. Just watching Five move about is painful. 

Five raises an eyebrow. "I won't tell if you don't." and then he starts to walk-though it's more of a hobble-towards the door. 

"Where are you going?!" Allison half shouts, ringing her hands together. "You need to stay in bed!" 

"I'll be back." Five replies, instead of explaining. And then, as the door shuts behind him: "And you three are still grounded, so keep looking contrite, or else." 

Thankfully his room isn't too far from Luther's, or Five isn't entirely sure he'd have made the trip. He knocks on Number One's door, knuckles rapping against the wood weakly. 

_"Go away."_

At least the kid hasn't tried to run away, Five thinks, sagging in relief against the frame. "Open the door punk, we're not done talking." 

The door practically flies open and he's shocked by the sight that greets him. 

A tear-streak faced Luther. 

His nose is red and runny, the underneath of his eyes pink and puffy from crying for what must have been _hours_ now and he lets out a tremendous sob when he sees Five standing there outside of his bedroom. 

"I'm so sorry." he cries, swiping at his face, only for the tears to keep coming. "I could've _killed_ you." he says, distraught and in absolute despair. 

Five had been prepared for some more attitude out of the boy-that, he knew how to counter. But this? Not so much. "Fuck, Luther, I-" he pauses, unsure of what to say. Finally, he thinks back to when he was thirteen and he'd seen the bodies of his family, strewn about, had realized with startling horror that he could not travel back. All he'd wanted was for someone to hold him, back then. 

Five takes a step or two forward, dragging the stand with him. He places a hand on Luther's shoulder, grimacing when the boy flinches under his touch. Luther's probably not used to this either, he thinks, his chest aching. "C'mere." he pulls gently and Luther goes willingly, falling into an embrace, his face digging into Five's shoulder blade as he sobs quietly. Five moves to wrap his arms around his brother, ignoring the way it pulls at his injury. 

After a few minutes, when Luther has settled and reluctantly pulled back, Five clears his throat. "We'll talk more tomorrow-I think we should have a family meeting, once tensions are less high." he says. "Oh, and you're still grounded for the rest of your life, so if I find out you've left the house I'll hide an angry skunk somewhere in your room." 

Luther lets out an involuntary bubble of laughter. "Ok." he hesitates for a moment, before just coming out with it. "Can I-I mean, is it ok if I stay in your room tonight?" 

Five shakes off his surprise at the question and shrugs. "Sure, but fair warning, you're going to be fighting for space on the floor with everyone else in there." 

Luther nods. "That's ok." 

Five turns to start leading them back down the hallway and to his room, but ends up doubled over, trying to catch his breath as the pain suddenly worsens to an intolerable degree. He really should have listened to Diego and Allison. Moving around so soon was a mistake. 

Luther is at his side instantly, fussing and offering to carry him the rest of the way. 

Five shakes his head adamantly. "M'fine." he insists. "Just need a moment." 

Luther doesn't look like he believes him one bit, but he doesn't bother arguing, either. He knows if there's anything he and Five share, it's their pension for stubbornness. Eventually Five does relent, however, and let Luther support the majority of his weight as they make it the last few steps to his room. 

The others are still waiting when the two arrive. Diego's gone back to pacing back and forth, Klaus is whispering to himself again, and Vanya and Allison are seated with their backs to the wall, next to one another, Allison's head on Vanya's shoulder. 

"Family meeting," Five announces, as he enters the room with Luther's help and is guided over to his bed. "Tomorrow after lunch, in the living room. Now everyone go to bed; it's late." 

The children gather blankets and extra pillows from a linen closet in the hall and lay everything down on the floor surrounding Five's bed. Nobody wants to leave, and so it's unanimously decided the siblings will all have a sleepover in Five's room tonight. 

Five arches a brow at them as they build their makeshift sleeping bags and settle in to go to sleep. His brothers and sisters can be so...peculiar, at times. 

The lights go off and in the dead silence Klaus asks: "Are we really grounded?" 

" _Forever_." 

*************************

If possible, Five feels even worse the next day. His muscles ache something fierce and his side throbs with every breath he takes. He wants to skip breakfast-there's just no way he's making it all the way to the kitchen right now-but Klaus comes to his room that morning with a plate full of fruits, toast, eggs and bacon. 

"Mom said you should avoid caffeine so Vanya's making you a cup of tea." he says, before Five can even open his mouth to ask for coffee. 

Five sighs. "Thanks." 

"Ok, well, I'll be back to collect your plate when we're done eating downstairs and it better be spotless, mister." Klaus skips over to the door, but stops just as he's about to step foot out of the room, his back turned to Five. "Also I don't know if I said this yet, but I'm really fucking glad you're not dead." Klaus runs out of there quickly, not giving Five a chance to say anything. Five can hear his scuffling footsteps on the stairs, fast like a rabbit. 

Five, for Klaus sake, forces himself to eat most of what's on his plate, only leaving half a piece of toast and a strip of bacon when he's finished. Vanya comes in with a nice hot cup of earl grey at some point and asks how he's feeling. 

"Fine." he lies. 

And he suspects she knows he's lying, by the sort of sad smile he gets in return. But she doesn't push him. 

By the time lunch rolls around Five decides to blink into the kitchen, IV stand and all. It's tiresome to use his power when he's injured like this, but he knows in his state, he'd have been lucky to make it down that flight of stairs. 

The children all ask him how's feeling, and again he lies. He knows none of them really buy it, but again nobody calls him out on the lie. Five thinks they want to believe he's alright, and he's certainly not going to take that belief away from them. Lunch is turkey sandwiches on whole grain with a side of cubed cheddar cheeses and grapes. 

Five eats mostly the grapes, only taking a bite or two of his sandwich. But it's more than he normally eats, so Allison, who's been compulsively watching to make sure he eats something, doesn't say anything. 

Once everyone has finished eating and put their plates and cups into the dishwasher, Five informs them all to meet in the living room for the family meeting in ten minutes. 

He calls Diego over and asks him to fetch Grace for him. Diego's eyes go wide with worry. "Is something wrong?" 

Five shakes his head. "I need her to get rid of this thing." he gestures towards the IV in his arm. 

"Oh, ok." Diego doesn't look so reassured, but moves to find their mom anyway. He returns with Grace only a few moments later, looking as if he ran to and from. 

Five waves him away. "Go, I'll meet you guys in a few minutes." 

Diego hesitates, but Grace gives him a big smile and tells him not to worry, and so he goes, looking over his shoulder until he's out of sight. 

Grace sits down in front of Five. "You should keep this on for another day, at least." she says, inspecting the IV drip. "You are still dehydrated and malnourished." 

Five insists she take it off anyway. "You can insert it back in later. I don't want to drag this thing around with me during the meeting. The kids feel guilty enough without having this thing there as a stark reminder." 

Grace gives him a funny look, but safely removes the needle from his arm. She takes a batman band aid out of her apron and places it on the injection site. "We lost you twice on the operating table." She says, without prompting. 

Five looks at her, brows furrowed. 

"We just got you back, Five." Grace brushes his bangs out of his face and stares at him intently. "I cannot bare to lose another son." 

Five swallows the lump in his throat, swallows down the urge to let himself be swept into his mother's arms. He's not a child anymore. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I prefer you worry over the others." 

"Right." Grace stands up and offers him a helping hand up off his chair. Grateful, he takes it. She does most of the work and helps him into the living room, where all the children are waiting. 

All except one. 

"Where's Vanya?" 

"The library?" Allison replies. She saw her head that way, at least. 

Five sighs, aggravated. "I mean, why isn't she here?" 

"Oh, you meant _everyone_?" Klaus purses his lips. "I thought this was just a meeting for the fuck ups." 

"Yeah, Vanya didn't do anything yesterday." Allison defends her sister. "She even tried to stop us, but we wouldn't listen." 

Luther nods. "It's true. She shouldn't get into trouble." 

Five lets Grace help him into the big old tufted chair. "Mom, can you get Vanya for me?" 

Grace nods and starts her way to the library. 

When she returns with the girl by her side, Five tells her to take a seat with everyone else. "I called a _family_ meeting, Vee, last time I checked, you're a part of it." 

Vanya blinks, like it's the first time that concept has ever entered her mind. "Oh." 

"Look," Five begins. "I called this meeting so we can all talk. Obviously I would like to talk about yesterday, so that in the future, we might avoid a similar incident. But, I also think it would be prudent to speak in general. I haven't been in your lives for a long time-for me, at least-for you guys, it's just been one really fucked up year of going from one shit storm to the next. So," he leans back, trying not to grimace in pain. "Let's talk." 

The children are quiet for a moment, before all of them (minus Vanya) start speaking all at once and over one another. 

"One at a time!" Five sighs. 

Allison folds her arms across her chest. "Where would we even start?" 

Five sucks at talking.

God, he hates it so very much, with every fiber of his being.

But it needs to be done, he tells himself resolutely. "Let's start with yesterday." he says. "I know you guys think I've forgotten about what it's like, fighting alongside everyone and saving the day, posing for the cameras and all that jazz, but I haven't. I know dad trained us to be his little super hero puppets, but what I don't know is why you guys would go in there without a plan? You all could have-" he stops. He doesn't even like the thought, has had too many sleepless nights picturing their corpses, to say it out loud. 

"We had a plan." Luther says, without any of his usual bolstering confidence. "It just...wasn't a good one." 

Diego chews on his fingernails-a nervous habit. "It's different." 

"What is?" Five asks. 

"Fighting," Diego sighs. "Without you and Ben. Ever since you left the team's been off. And then when Ben..." he looks down at the floor, as if trying to decode a secret message on the tile pattern. "When Ben d-d-died it got even worse. Suddenly we were down two people and I don't know." he shrugs, looking desperate. "You start wondering, 'who's next?', ya' know?" 

Five gulps. He does know. "I can imagine." 

Klaus looks at him incredulously. "Can you, though? I mean, no offense, but you're lucky, you _left_ this carnival of freaks and grew up, you had a whole life, probably, outside of this mess, with like, a hot girlfriend and maybe some friends, you probably even got a job at a university for geniuses or something. You have no idea what it's like to have to watch one of your siblings die, or wait for a missing one to come back home, thinking hopefully that'll fix everything. You have no fuckin' clue what we've been through." 

Five thinks that if he could tell them even some of the truth of what he's been through in the past seventeen years, that it might help to bridge the gap between them, if only a tiny bit. But that isn't going to happen. Not if he can help it. "You're right. And I'm sorry." he says instead, sincerely. "I tried my best to return, once I'd realized what I'd done. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me so long to figure out how to travel back." 

Klaus nods, accepting the apology for what it's worth. He looks like he wants to say something else, but in the end, he leaves the floor open for someone else to speak. 

"You were really impressive yesterday." Allison comments, curiously. "The way you were flashing around the room, like a ghost or something. How did you do that?" 

Five clears his throat. "I had a lot of time to practice. Which, actually, I think you should all have, too." 

"You're gonna let us keep training?" Luther asks, trying not to sound too hopeful. 

Five nods. "Under my strict supervision. And we're done doing it the way dad had us training, like some lab rats. And," he looks at Klaus, who he knows hates the idea already. "It won't be mandatory. If, when you turn eighteen, any of you want to go on missions, I'm not going to stop you. But as of right now, my stance on sending children out to fight remains the same: I'm against it."

Luther frowns but can't deny the humongous bungled spectacle that was yesterday's mission, and so he nods in acceptance. The others do, as well. 

Allison asks, "When can we start?" 

"Tomorrow." Five looks at Vanya, who hasn't said a word since sitting down. "It's not compulsory training. This is simply practice. And like I said, nobody is required to be there, but anyone who wants to join, can, and should." 

Vanya stares back with obvious confusion. She doesn't have powers; there's nothing to practice. 

Diego leans against a cushion on the couch. "So, are we really grounded?" 

Five arches a brow. "For a month." 

"We never get to leave the house anyway, what good is a grounding gonna do?" Klaus asks. 

"I'm assigning all of you chores your loving mother normally does around the house. I've already given Grace orders not to help any of you, so good luck cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, the dishes-and yes, I am aware that we have a dishwasher, Pogo's uninstalling that as we speak-and any of the million other little things mom takes care of." He grins widely.

The children all look genuinely horror struck. 

"I'm including you too, Vanya." Five says. 

Allison gapes. "Wait a minute, Vanya didn't do anything! She tried her best to talk us out of it. We were just too stubborn to listen." 

Vanya smiles a small smile. Two weeks ago Allison wouldn't even look at her if they were passing each other in the hall, and now she's defending her? It feels like a dream. 

Five directs his attention back to Vanya, who blinks up at him innocently. "You waited until they'd gotten a good head start on me before coming to tell me. You're in as much trouble as the rest of these hooligans." He thinks the time doing chores together might bring them closer; Vanya needs to feel some kind of camaraderie with the rest of her siblings. 

Vanya nods, accepting her punishment along with everyone else. 

After that Five makes one of the kids get him a pen and a pad and he has them pick random numbers for what chore they'll be assigned the next day. They all bitch and moan, but Five can see they're having fun trading and bargaining chores with each other as he gives them out. 

He cuts the family meeting short, but only because he can tell he's about five minutes away from passing out. "And on a final note," he says, "Just for future reference, any of you can call a family meeting whenever there's a concern you'd like addressed. Got it?" 

They all perk up at that. They've never been given that big a voice in the house before. The idea of actually being heard is new. 

Grace helps Five back to his room and once he's in bed, exhausted beyond all measures of the word, she reattaches the IV and offers him some pain meds. "These will help you sleep. I've been monitoring your heart rate all day. I can tell you're in a lot of pain." 

Five declines the medicine. "Those make me too drowsy. I need to be alert." 

Grace tilts her head. "Why is that?" 

Five huffs. "When I left the future, it wasn't exactly on good terms, with much of anyone." He doesn't explain further, but he doesn't need to. Grace has always understood more than she let on. 

"I see." She takes his flip phone out of her apron and hands it to him. "I took this from you during the operation yesterday. I'm returning it now. I believe you have a voicemail." 

Five frowns at the cellular phone. "Thanks." when she leaves the room, closing the door behind her, he plays the voicemail. It's from Vanya's psychiatrist. Finally returning his numerous calls. 

Good, he thinks, already starting to drift into a slumber, he'll call them back tomorrow and set an appointment to speak later in the week. 

Finally, some answers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know i sound like a broken record lol but THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE CONTINUED SUPPORT! it makes me so happy to see what u all think/know u all enjoy this AU as much as i enjoy writing it :)


	9. Chapter 9

It's only been a few days since the bank incident, and though Five is finding it much easier to walk around the property now without feeling like he's going to keel over, Grace won't let him do anything more strenuous. 

She suddenly has a lot more free time now that the children are taking care of her normal duties around the home. 

Grace chooses to use that time to make sure Five doesn't strain himself, following him around and attending to him like a worried mother goose chasing a stray gosling. 

"How are the kids doing this morning?" He asks, as she checks the dressing on his injury to make sure it's healing alright and none of the stitches have come undone since the last time she cleaned the sight. 

"Pogo is with them in the garden, leading them through meditation as we speak." Grace replies; satisfied with her inspection, she helps Five button up his shirt. "Klaus still refuses to join them, but he has been sitting by the window observing the rest of the children since eight oh nine AM." 

Five nods. None of them had been entirely thrilled when his idea of practice meant starting meditation, in order to learn better focus. But, after the family meeting on Monday, the majority of them had actually given it a chance without too much complaining. Even Vanya had decided to join them on day two, after some convincing from Allison over dinner that first night. 

He hopes Klaus eventually changes his mind. Five knows how much Klaus despises his powers, is afraid of them, even, but he also knows that with proper practice Klaus would be able to harness his abilities and be the one in control, instead of feeling like he needs to suppress them all of the time and run from himself. 

"Where are you headed today?" Grace asks, interrupting his train of thought. 

"I'm going uptown, to have a talk with Vanya's psychiatrist." He's tempted to ask her if she knows anything about the pills Vanya is being prescribed, but Grace was just as loyal to Reginald when he was alive as Pogo is now, even after the man's death. Five knows she doesn't exactly have a choice, and he'd rather avoid giving her a chance to lie straight to his face. 

"I would like to come." Grace requests. 

Five frowns. "Why?" Grace so rarely asks for anything. 

"You should really be in bed, resting and recovering. You shouldn't be leaving the house so soon, but I know that you are obstinate and refuse to listen. If you collapse again and no one is around to help, what will you do? I would like to come." she repeats. 

Five rolls his eyes. "And I'm the obstinate one, huh?" he sighs. "Fine then, we can take the car." He's too tired to wait for the bus and walk the four blocks it would leave him, from the psychiatrists' building, and he hates to admit it, but Grace has a point. 

He's not even half way to being fully recovered yet. 

**********************************

Five leaves Pogo in charge of the children and takes his phone with him, just in case he needs to be contacted. 

Grace drives, humming along mindlessly to the radio. Five turns to her, curious. "Hey mom, what are you planning to do when the children are all grown up and out of the house?" 

They come to a stop, at a red light, and she makes a face, like she's looking for the correct answer, and realizes she can't find it. "That's a good question Five. I'm not quite sure." she replies, honestly, and then, turns it around on him. "And how about you?" 

Five blinks. "What?" 

"What will you do, when your nest is empty?" 

Five licks his lips and leans back against his seat, looks out of the window at all the buildings and people they're passing by for a long minute. "I don't know. I haven't ever really thought that far ahead. This whole time, everything has been about stopping the a-" he gulps. "Well, about getting back. And now I am." 

"We're here." Grace puts the car in park and steps out of the vehicle, going around to open the door for Five, so that she can help him out, which he appreciates, given how stiff he is after having to sit up in the car with the stupid seat belt digging into him for the trip uptown, however short it had been. 

The building is tall and oddly ominous. Dr. White's office is on the fifth floor, room 549, in the left corridor. 

And just his luck, Five thinks with a put upon sigh, that the elevator is currently under maintenance. 

Grace frowns. "We can reschedule." she suggests. 

Five shakes his head. "We're already here. Five flights isn't going to kill me." 

"Famous last words." Grace quotes, uncharacteristically sarcastic. 

He ignores her as he opens the door to the stair well and grips the railing like a lifeline, pulling himself up by sheer force of stubborn will power alone. By the third flight of stairs his side is throbbing and he has to stop to catch his breath, annoyed by the know it all look on his mother's face. 

"I can carry you the rest of the way there." Grace says, not for the first time since they started their little uphill journey. 

And for the millionth time, Five declines, wiping the sweat from his brow and huffing. "Just two more flights." 

By the time they get to Dr. White's office they're nearly ten minutes late and Five is shaking with exhaustion. Thankfully the psychiatrist is being delayed currently with another patient, the nurse at the front desk informs them politely. She notes the sickly pallor of his skin and the heavy breathing and says, "You two can take a seat in the waiting area; we have water and cups in the corner there, if you need it." 

Five nods, his gait stilted as he plops down on a chair, wrapping an arm around himself and cringing. He may have been too overzealous, though he won't admit it out loud. 

Grace fills a plastic cup with water and hands it to him when she sits down next to Five. "Drink, it'll make you feel better." 

"Thanks." He gulps the water down greedily, his throat parched. 

They wait another fifteen minutes before being called inside. Grace remains seated in the waiting room. She holds onto his cell phone in case Pogo calls with an emergency concerning the children. 

Dr. White is a tall woman in her late fifties with fire red hair and a pair of rimless glasses, balanced right on the very edge of her small upturned nose. 

"Mr. Hargreeves," she looks perplexed when she greets him. "I apologize but I had been expecting someone..." 

"Older. Yes." Five shakes her hand and takes a seat. "You're thinking of my late father, Reginald Hargreeves." 

Dr. White gives her condolences. "I wasn't aware of his passing." 

Five clears his throat. "It was very recent." he explains. "During the reading of his will, I found out my father left everything in my name-including your patient and my sister, Vanya." 

Dr. White nods sympathetically. "That must have been a shock. I assume you're here to discuss the previous arrangement your father and I had?" 

Five pretends he has an actual idea of what it is the psychiatrist is talking about. "Yes. He left a few stipulations in his wills, but well-you knew the man, he's always been very cryptic about these things. I just want what's best for Vanya." 

Dr. White nods once again. "Of course. It's what we all want. And so long as those monthly checks keep coming, so will the prescriptions." she smiles. "Your father was nothing if not generous." 

"Absolutely." Five returns the smile pleasantly. "Is Vanya's therapist in the same building?" he asks. "I wanted to speak to them as well, but I can't seem to find a number for them." 

"Unfortunately he's off today, but," she checks the notes on her laptop and writes down some information on a piece of paper and hands it to Five. "Vanya has an appointment coming up with Dr. Tsun in about a week. I wrote the date and time there for you. You'll be able to have a conversation with him either before or after her session." 

"Great." Five stands up and shakes the doctor's hand again, firmly. "It was nice getting acquainted, Dr. White. Thank you for taking the time to see me." 

"Absolutely." she hands him a card. "That's my personal cell number there, if you ever need anything, just give me a ring. That's my direct line. It'll be easier than trying to make an appointment through my staff." 

Once Five and Grace are back in the car, on the road again, Grace asks, "Did you find what you were looking for?" 

"Unfortunately." Five's answer is clipped. 

"You sound upset." she notes. 

"Mom, I need you to be honest with me about something." Five frowns. "And if you can't, then I'd rather you not lie to me. I'd rather you just, not answer me at all, is that ok?" 

Grace nods. "Alright." 

"Do you know anything important that I should be aware of, about Vanya and the medicine she's been taking?" he waits with baited breath for a long moment before realizing that no answer is forthcoming. He swallows down his disappointment. "Right. That's what I thought." 

Grace grips at the steering wheel, harder than necessary, not looking away from the road ahead. "I am sorry, Five. I cannot go against my programming." 

Five reaches out to squeeze her shoulder briefly, his fingers lingering for a second. "I know mom. It's not your fault. I've always known that." 

****************************

That night he sits down in the library with Vanya. "I wanted to talk to you about the medicine you've been taking." 

Vanya tilts her head. "What about it?" 

"Do you remember when you first started taking it?" 

Vanya shakes her head. "Not really. A few years ago, maybe? To be honest, it's a little fuzzy." she admits softly. "I can't really remember a time when I wasn't on them."

"I spoke to Dr. White today." 

"You did? What for?" She only ever sees her psychiatrist maybe once every other month, in order to get her prescription refilled; she's not due for her next appointment for another month, at least. 

"When I went to get your meds at the pharmacy I had a conversation with the head pharmacist and she told me you were on a pretty high dose, considering your age. She gave me Dr. White's number, and I finally managed to get in contact with her." He explains. "Vee, when you talk to Dr. Tsun, would you mind telling me what it is you two discuss?" 

It's the wrong thing to ask, because Vanya clams up. "It's nothing." she says, picking at a loose string on her over sized sweater. "Why do you want to know? Dr. White wouldn't prescribe me something I don't need. I don't understand why you're asking so many questions. Why didn't you come to me in the first place if you wanted to know so bad?" she looks down and away, but Five can see the stiff set of her shoulders and the way her eyebrows furrow downwards. 

He's upsetting her. 

"Call it being overprotective or, maybe just paranoid." he sighs. "I'm worried, that's all. I don't really think you need those meds Vee. How would you feel about looking for a new place for therapy? A new psychiatrist. I don't know if Dr. White is the right fit for you." 

Vanya shakes her head. "No, I like where I am. I like Dr. White. And Dr. Tsun. They're nice to me. You can't just make these decisions all by yourself, without even talking to me." she glares at him. "You didn't even tell me you were going to see her today." 

Five realizes the situation is spiraling out of control faster than he'd like. "That's not what's happening here, I am talking to you, I wouldn't make any decisions without consulting you, if they involve you, Vanya. I'm sorry I went behind your back, I just-I didn't want to concern you if it turned out to be nothing. I should have told you I was going to visit Dr. White today." 

"So it didn't turn out to be nothing?" Vanya frowns. "Five, what aren't you telling me?" 

Shit, he hadn't meant to say that last bit out loud. Five massages the side of his temple, frustrated by his own lack of communication skills. "I don't know why, but Dr. White all but confessed to me that dad has been bribing her and Dr. Tsun to keep you medicated." Clearly trying to sugarcoat things is backfiring on him. He thinks honesty might be the only route he can take. 

Vanya shakes her head in denial. "That's...that's not true. That can't be true. You must have misunderstood her." 

"I didn't. Vanya, she told me straight out. As long as the checks keep coming, she'll keep prescribing you those anti anxiety pills." 

"No, you're lying." she stands up. 

"I'm not, Vanya, why would I lie to you?" 

"How am I supposed to believe you when you won't even tell us anything about where you've been for the last seventeen years? We practically had to pull teeth to get you to admit you had a girlfriend, and we still don't even know her name!" Vanya half shouts. "So I'd appreciate it if you would just butt out of this and stop digging for something that isn't there." she starts to storm off, and it's not until she reaches the door that Five speaks. 

"Delores." 

She turns around, hesitant. "What?" 

"Her name is- _was_ -Delores." It hurts just to say her name aloud. "I know I can be aloof at times. I know it's hard to trust me, and I don't blame you, but I need you to believe me when I tell you I only have your very best interests at heart, when it comes to you." Five makes direct eye contact. "Vanya, I am not lying to you about Dr. White. Something weird is going on; I have no idea why dad would want to drug you, but I really think you should quit taking those pills." he pleads. 

"I don't understand-I'm nothing special, why would dad do this to _me_?" Vanya meanders back to the table and takes a seat. "Are you sure?" she asks, eyes wide. 

Five nods. "I am." he sighs. "I think we should wean you off slowly, from the drug. Quitting cold turkey could have some adverse side effects." 

"I have an appointment with Dr. Tsun next week. What am I supposed to tell him?" 

"We can cancel the appointment and look for a new place, if you'd like to continue seeing a therapist. I don't think you should go back there." 

Vanya can feel a terrible kind of anger and despair warring inside of her, fighting to rush to the surface and swallow her whole. It makes her want to pop a pill. "I don't know what I want." She holds herself tight, her nails biting into the skin underneath the sleeve of her sweater. 

Five can see she's overwhelmed and he feels like an idiot for having thrust all of this upon her like this. He shouldn't have been so hasty. "That's ok." he assures her. "You don't have to figure everything all out at once. We can take it one step at a time, there's no rush." 

"I don't want to talk anymore. Can I go to my room?" 

Five nods, feeling the knot in his stomach tighten. "Of course. Goodnight, Vanya." 

She leaves the library without another word. 

****************************

Five finds himself, at nearly half past two in the morning, a few hours later, in the middle of a mall department store. He's not even sure he'll find her here, even though it is the place where he originally found her, covered in ashes, all those years ago. 

He goes through every display, avoiding being seen by security cameras, and he's just about to give up when he sees her. His Delores. 

She's got on a short brown wig with side swept bangs and a lovely set of silk red pajamas. He'd only managed to find half of her body in the apocalypse. She's taller than he thought she would be. 

"Delores." he wants to cry. "I've missed you so much." he climbs the display and drags her into an embrace so tight it hurts his side, but he doesn't care. Five holds her face in the palms of his hands, his thumb brushing lovingly against her cheek. "I don't know what I'm doing." he confesses. "I feel like I'm fucking everything up, no matter what I do. What if I screw them all up even more than dad would have? What if I'm the reason for the apocalypse? My existence doesn't make any sense, not in the future, and not in this timeline either. Maybe I'm the anomaly." 

Five rests his forehead against her shoulder, mentally drained and physically exhausted. "I'm sorry for unloading on you like this. I just-there's no one else I can talk to. Pogo would never betray dad. And mom literally can't." he looks up at Delores, blinking up at her. "You're right." he says. "Why didn't I think of that?" He huffs out a small laugh. "Yes, yes, I remember, you're the brains of this operation. You know, I-" 

"Hey, who's there?!" 

Five startles, realizing security has caught wind of him. He hugs Delores once more and forces himself to let go. "I'm sorry, I'll be back to visit you, I promise." he blinks out of the mall before the guards can flash their lights in his direction. 

Five doesn't sleep that night.

He stays up doing copious amounts of research instead, sneaking into his fathers study to rummage through his notes and make some of his own. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know if u guys can tell, but i love grace and would lay down my life for that funky lil robot mom 
> 
> also THANK YOU FOR READING/COMMENTING! <33333333


	10. Chapter 10

Allison wishes she could rumor the rest of her siblings into doing her chores for her, but Five had already caught her once this week and given her extra chores for it. So grudgingly, she gets up around seven AM in order to prepare breakfast, seeing that it's her turn to do so today. 

She's tempted to simply put six pieces of bread in the toaster and call it a day, but is well aware by now that that'll only end in unwanted consequences. Allison is mixing the batter for the pancakes when Vanya appears at the entrance of the kitchen, looking like a lost lamb. 

"Hey, you ok?" Allison frowns. 

Vanya leans against the entryway and asks, "I was wondering…. Can you rumor someone into forgetting something?" 

"Uh, I suppose I can. I don't think I've ever tried." Allison pushes the batter onto the counter and turns around, focusing her full attention on Vanya. "How come?" 

"I was wondering if you could rumor me into forgetting last night." 

Allison's eyebrows go all the way up. "Wait-what? What the hell happened last night?" 

Vanya shakes her head. "You know what, never mind, it's stupid. Forget it." 

"Vanya, stop." Allison sprints across the room to grab hold of her sisters hand before she can run off. "Look, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I get it. But-I mean, are you alright? You're kind of freaking me out here." 

"I think..." Vanya bites her bottom lip. "There might be something wrong with me. I think dad knew but he didn't say anything. Instead he'd been drugging me this whole time. Bribing my psychiatrist into feeding me pills I probably didn't even need." 

Allison can barely wrap her head around what she's just heard, her head reeling. "What?" 

"Five told me last night. He said I should stop taking the pills, but not all at once. He wants me to keep taking them." Vanya shakes her head. "But I can't. _I won't_. I flushed them all down the toilet last night. Please don't tell him." 

"I won't." Allison promises. "Come here." she wraps her arms around Vanya. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to say." 

Vanya buries her head into Allison's shoulder and breathes out slowly, trying her best to regain her composure. She wishes she hadn't flushed those stupid pills, because she could really use one right about now. She hadn't realized how dependent she'd become on them until they were gone. 

That grips her with an awful fright. 

**************************

"You've missed breakfast-the children begun to worry when they noticed you weren't in bed." Grace finds Five in his father's study hours later, still hunched over manuals and scribbling down notations. 

Five doesn't look up, intent on his research. But he does ask- _hesitantly_ , Grace notes-"How's Vanya?" 

"She seemed distracted this morning. She didn't eat as much as she normally does." Grace reports, looking over Five's shoulder and furrowing her eyebrows in confusion when she sees what it is he's been pouring over all morning-or rather, all night, by the looks of him. "That's my code." 

Five nods. "If you'll allow me, I can reprogram your code-I can make it so you won't have to keep Reginalds secrets for him anymore." 

Graces lips twitch upward. "Clever boy. I'll start a pot of coffee, then." 

Five grins up at her. "Thank you." 

*******************************

Luther finds that he actually likes meditating. Though admittedly he'd been the first to complain that he'd been hoping for some more substantial practice. 

The quiet is a serene quiet, and not the strict enforced silence their father had always requested around the house when the children were getting a little too rowdy for his liking. 

And best of all, the choice to sit quietly and meditate for a half an hour every day with Pogo in the garden was just that: a choice. If Luther didn't feel like joining that day, he could simply opt out. 

That had never ever been an option with Reginalds rigid training. Even when he'd broken bones or exhausted himself during a mission, Reginald had forced him to train with the others, insisting that heroes didn't get to have a day off. 

After breakfast the children sit in the garden to meditate-or rather, Diego and Luther do. Allison and Vanya head to the library instead. Luther's curious but doesn't ask. Allison and Vanya have been getting closer as of late-something he hadn't thought would ever happen, given how readily Reginald had pitted the only two girls in the family against each other for so long. 

Luther tries to clear his mind during meditation, but all he can think about is the weight-or lack thereof-of Five's limp body when he'd picked him up off the ground and carried him into the infirmary on Sunday. 

Five's barely there ragged breathing, the slow rise and fall of his chest, the way the blood had seeped into Luthers uniform shirt afterwards. He still has that shirt folded up underneath his bed. He should have thrown it out or at least given it to Grace-she often did wonders with getting blood stains off of the childrens clothing-but instead he'd kept it. 

As a reminder, he thinks, furrowing his brows. He'd led his siblings into battle completely unprepared and worst of all, he'd nearly gotten Five killed in the process. 

When meditation ends, he doesn't feel any lighter or any more clear headed, the way he normally does. Instead, he feels heavy with guilt and anxiety. Mom had told them after breakfast that she'd found Five in their fathers study. She'd told them to leave him be for the time being. 

And although Luther is the first to listen when told not to disturb an adult when they're busy, he still somehow ends up at the door of the study. 

He stands there for several minutes, nervous as all hell. Luther doesn't know why, but he's expecting to open the door only to see Reginald there, seated behind his enormous desk and looking up at him with that intimidating unyielding gaze of his. 

He jumps when Grace, appearing from seemingly out of nowhere, reaches out from just behind him to open the door. She's balancing a tray on her other hand perfectly. She gives Luther a knowing look as she passes him. "You can come in; he's due for a break." she tells him. 

Five is seated atop Reginalds desk, legs folded, elbows on his knees, muttering to himself distractedly as he reads a set of notes. 

Grace sets the tray of goods-two chocolate croissants, a side of cut up fruits and a mug of coffee-onto the desk to the side of Five. "You have a visitor." 

Five looks up. "Huh?" Then he turns to the door, where Luther is still lingering, shuffling his feet awkwardly. "Oh. Everything alright?" 

Luther shrugs. He's not sure. "I was just...bored." he lies. 

Five purses his lips and Luther feels as though he's seeing right through the bullshit. "Good. I need a second pair of eyes anyway, come sit with me." He waves him over. 

Luther hesitates another moment before shaking away some of the self doubt and walking over. He stares at Reginalds chair and, deciding no one is going to yell at him for sitting down on it, does just that, pushing the seat closer to peruse the papers strewn across the desk. 

"What is all this?" he asks. 

Five nods towards Grace, who's sitting by the window now, watching with a smile at her other two boys as they play tag in the courtyard, instead of watering the plants, like they're supposed to be. "It's mom's coding, basically."

Luther looks up at his mom, alarmed. "Is she ok?" 

Five nods. "Don't worry, she's fine. I just need to perform some minor memory allocation without too much integer overflow in order to avoid setting the stage for buffer overflow." 

Luther stares at Five like he's speaking an alien language. "I don't think I'm gonna be any help." he frowns. If anything, he's a hindrance. Reginald always made it pretty clear that the truly smart ones in the family were Ben and Five, and even they weren't treated much better for it. 

"Sure you will." Five counters, swiveling around and handing Luther a collection of out of order notes. "Dad was shit at keeping things straight-his notes are a goddamn mess." 

Luther takes the loose sheets and doesn't bother telling Five that he's seen his notes when he's doing research at the library and they aren't all that much different from their dads. 

"I'm looking for the CERT standards. Spelled C-E-R-T. Dad's is different from the usual set up, because _of course_ it is." Five rolls his eyes. "It's the last thing I need to figure out and then I can start converting the non compliant code into code that complies with my CERT standards." 

Luther nods dutifully. He has no idea what any of that actually means, or what it'll mean for Grace, but, oddly enough, he trusts that Five knows what he's doing and he's willing to do what he can in order to help. 

Grace casually reminds Five that he still hasn't touched any of the food she left on the tray for him and Five sighs, picking up both croissants. He hands one to Luther and munches on the other while continuing to browse through notebooks full of code and meticulous notes. 

About an hour in Luther feels more relaxed than he has all week. There's just something about the sound of Five's fingers flipping through pages, the smell of chocolate and coffee still wafting in the air and mom's easy presence by the window that calms Luther. It's nice. 

Luther jumps up suddenly, pushing his chair back into the bookshelf behind him, eyes lighting up like fireflies. "I found it!" He shoves the pages in front of Five's face excitedly. 

Five takes them and examines them for a moment, Luther holding his breath for confirmation the entire time. Five's face breaks out into a grin. "Good job." 

Luther preens at the praise, smiling from ear to ear. 

****************************

"What was it called, again?" 

Vanya thinks back to the label across the orange vial. "Paroxetine. Forty milligrams. They're blue round tiny pills." 

Allison nods and starts stacking medical journals atop the table in the library. "This would be a lot easier if we had access to the internet." she sighs. Reginald had been against such frivolous things, but she's sure she could convince Five to take them into the twenty-first century with enough elbow grease. "Alright," she rolls up the sleeves of her shirt. "Let's get to work, shall we?" 

Vanya nods, determined to find out what exactly Reginald has been force feeding her for most of her life, and if possible, why. 

"Another name for paroxetine is paxil." Allison reads aloud, after finding the name of the drug in the third book she picks up. Vanya perks up. 

Allison frowns. "Safety and efficacy hasn't been established with children... Paxil is used commonly in adults to treat a variety of disorders," she skims the page and continues. "Depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, social phobia, post traumatic stress disorder. Vanya," she turns to her, "How many of them do you take a day?" 

"Two. One in the morning and one at night time normally. But I skipped the night dose yesterday after getting rid of the pills." 

"It says in this text that the patient shouldn't exceed more than fifty milligrams in a day." Allison shakes her head. "Your dose was _way_ too high. Was dad bribing the pharmacy too? If the fact that these were being prescribed to a kid wasn't enough to raise some red flags, then the fact that the dose was so outrageous should have alerted _someone_ into reporting this." 

Vanya glares at the stupid portrait of their father, over the mantel. "I guess money speaks louder than the screams of a rich old mans children." 

Allison stares at Vanya from across the table, perhaps for the first time in their lives ever truly relating to her sister. She'd always been so jealous of Vanya; Daddy's favorite, always by his side as he pit the rest of them against one another like wild, hungry animals.

"And now the rich old man is dead." she clears her throat and continues to read. "The side effects of sudden withdrawal for paroxetine are-" she pauses, grimacing. 

"What is it?" 

"They're the worst of any other drug in its class when it comes to withdrawal. Paxil has a short life span of about twenty one hours, which means in two or three days you'll be experiencing some serious withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms like: nausea, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, loss of appetite, dizziness and light-headedness that make it difficult to walk, insomnia, nightmares or unusually vivid dreams. It says here you might have flu-like symptoms including headache, muscle pain, weakness, fatigue and tiredness. You might experience extreme anxiety, agitation, panic-"

"I think I've heard enough." Vanya interrupts, drawing her knees up to her chest. "I should have just listened to Five. Why did I think flushing the pills was a good idea? Allison, what am I supposed to do now?" 

Allison reaches for her hand and squeezes gently but firmly. "I think maybe you have to tell Five. I can come with you, we can tell him together. Hey, what about this? I can tell him I threw them out last night by accident since it was my turn to take out the trash!" 

Vanya looks up at her from underneath her fringe. "You'd do that?" 

"Of course." Allison tugs at her hand, "Come on, I heard mom say he was in dad's study earlier." 

Vanya nods, allowing herself to be led away from the library. They have to do it now, she thinks, before she loses her nerve entirely. 

In the hall they pass the giant windows facing the courtyard and Vanya catches sight of Pogo and the three boys running around playing some kind of game. 

Allison, who's always been a fearless, no nonsense person, opens the door to the study without any of the reluctance Vanya is feeling; this is their late father's study, after all, he hated the children's presence here. 

"Whoa, what's going on?" Allison stops mid step. Vanya peaks over her shoulder to see what's made her sister give pause. 

Grace is seated by the window, her arm outstretched so that her palm is facing upwards. Five is kneeling on the floor beside her inspecting the wires and circuitry in the open panel of her wrist. 

"Repairs." Five replies shortly, not looking up. 

Vanya furrows her brows. "Mom, are you alright?" 

Grace smiles at her reassuringly. "I am, thank you for asking." 

Allison takes advantage of the fact that Five is distracted and blurts out, all in one breath. "So we just wanted to come in here real quick and let you know that when I was collecting the trash to take it out last night I may have accidentally thrown Vanya's medicine out, too. We were hoping you could come up with some sort of solution, please and thank you." 

Five blinks up at the girls, "You did what?" 

"It was an accident." Allison shrugs, trying to act nonchalant. "I must have knocked the bottle into her trash bin or something." 

"Right." Five closes the panel shut. "Sorry mom, I need to take care of this, I'll keep working on this when I get back." 

Grace nods in understanding. 

"What are you going to do?" Vanya asks timidly. She can't quite tell if he's bought their lie or if he's pretending to, for their sake. 

"I'll let the pharmacy know what happened and see if they're able to fill it again; if not, I'll call Dr. White." Five winces as he straightens to a standing position, wrapping an arm around himself and grimacing at the throbbing pain against his side. Perhaps he's been pushing himself just a little too hard lately. He really should be in bed, resting. Hah, as if he has that kind of luxury, he thinks. 

"Are you ok?" Vanya worries at her lip. 

Five nods, "I just pulled a muscle-I'm old, remember?" he jokes halfheartedly. "I'll be back, try not to burn the house down before then. Pogo and Grace are in charge while I'm gone." 

Allison and Vanya nod and watch as he rolls down the sleeves of his white button up and does up the cuffs before leaving the room. 

"See?" Allison nudges Vanyas shoulder. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" 

"Do you think he knows we were lying?" 

Allison huffs, leaning her back against the wall and replaying the conversation in her head. "Hmm, yeah, probably. But he didn't say anything, if he did suspect something was up, so I say we count it as a win." She takes hold of Vanyas hand again. "Wanna go play tag outside with the boys?" 

"I thought we were all grounded." 

"Yeah, I don't think Five or Pogo really know the totality of what that's supposed to encompass." Allison grins. "C'mon, let's play." 

Vanya smiles. "Ok." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i like to imagine pogo taught the kids how to play tag in secret (bc really, where else would they have learned the game?) and graces favorite past time is watching him chase the kids around the court yard 
> 
> five runs into some (more) trouble in the next chapter so stay tuned! 
> 
> also thanku all for reading/commenting <333333333333333


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW:   
> Derogatory slur implied to be said towards the end of this chapter (during the trip to 7/11)

Five curses. 

He really should have called ahead-the pharmacy closes early on Fridays. They don't open again until nine the next morning and now he's stuck standing outside of the closed doors, looking like an idiot. 

He pulls out his cell phone and calls Dr. White, hoping he can get the meds transferred to another pharmacy, but he's shit out of luck, because his call ends up going straight to voicemail. "Fuck me." he groans in irritation. 

"Well don't mind if I do." 

The hairs on the back of Fives neck stand and his entire body goes tense. He just narrowly avoids flinching away from that alarmingly familiar voice. Five forces himself to turn around as nonchalantly as humanly possible, tucking his hands into his coat pockets to hide the tremors. "What a sight for sore eyes." he grins sharply. 

"Oh Five, you and flattery-like oil and water." The Handler purses her plum red lips together and takes a single menacing step forward. She's dressed to the nines in a creamy white pin up dress, her hair in flamboyant curls that bounce when she tilts her head sideways. "I can't believe it took me nearly a month to find you, you _cunning_ little boy." 

"Guess I shouldn't have overestimated you so much. Given how easily I was able to slip away." he snarks. 

The Handlers smile drops. "You really think you're actually achieving something here, don't you?" 

Five takes a step back, sets his jaw, fists turning blue in his pockets. 

"You think you can just jump backwards in time and change the future? As if there aren't _consequences_?" She scoffs. "You really are just a child, aren't you?" The Handler corners him against a brick wall and places her index finger under his chin, roughly tilting his head up so that he's forced to meet her eyes. "You were a naive and lost little boy when I rescued you from the apocalypse two years ago, and you're a naive, lost little boy now, if you truly believe you can do anything without _my_ express permission." 

Five slaps her hand away. " _Fuck you._ " he spits out, his skin crawling with disgust. He can't stand her roaming, lingering touch. 

The Handler laughs, an ugly, condescending sound. "Looks like I've struck a nerve." Without a word of warning she strikes out with the heel of her palm, digging it firmly into Fives side. 

Five chokes on a gasp, bending at the waist as he tries to catch his breath. He detests what he's reduced to in her presence; the fear and the helplessness she instills in him, even now, is debilitating at best. 

"Aw, did that hurt?" The Handler coos, pretending to be concerned. She takes another step towards him, her smile widening when Five inches back, only to find that the wall is at his back. "Count yourself lucky that the powers that be find you more valuable alive than dead...for now." She leans down to boop him on the nose with the sharp tip of her finely manicured nail. "I'll be around. So don't get too comfortable, little boy." 

Five glares up at her, teeth gritted. "So your bosses have you on a short leash, huh?" 

The Handler straightens and brushes off some imaginary dust from the skirt of her dress. "Don't test me, Five." she frowns, the lines around her mouth deepening. "A bitch on a leash can still bite. I think it would serve you well to remember that." And just like that, she's gone, as though she were never there to begin with. 

"Fuck!" Five bangs his fist against the brick wall.

He should have snapped her neck. 

Instead, he thinks, so pissed off he can't see straight, he froze up, overwhelmed by fear and let The Handler get the upper hand-not to mention the last word. 

*******************************

The only rule in tag: _No using your powers._

Which Vanya appreciates, considering she has none. The rule had only been invented when the rest of the Hargreeves had realized Allison was not above rumoring every one of them if it meant she was no longer 'it' in the game whenever she got tagged. 

Pogo volunteers to be 'it' for the majority of the game, chasing them around the courtyard until the children are all beyond exhausted and Grace calls them all in to wash up before dinner. She's well aware that Five had told her not to cook or clean for the children until their grounding was over-it's Diego's turn to cook dinner tonight, according to the daily chore chart-but Five isn't home to enforce that, and the children are all so tired, she thinks, as she ushers them all inside. 

Dinner is ready by the time the children have cleaned up and changed out of their grass stained clothing. 

"Where'd Five go, anyway?" Klaus asks, mouth full. 

Vanya and Allison trade looks from across the table but don't say a word. 

"Your brother is running errands, I believe." Grace covers for the girls. "Though," she looks pensive for a second. "He should have been back by now. It's starting to get dark out." 

"Man, he literally got gunned down what-four? Five days ago? Our old man needs to take a break." Klaus huffs. 

Luther nods, for once in complete agreement with his brother. "He should be in bed." 

The front door opens and slams shut then, and Klaus grins. "Speak of the devil." 

"We're in the dinning room, come join us!" Allison calls out. 

"Yeah, gimme a minute!" They hear him shout from upstairs. 

He blinks into the room a few minutes later wearing an over sized black tee and a pair of maroon red pajama pants; he looks beat. Five sits down in front of the plate Grace sets on the table for him and arches a knowing brow. "Diego, I didn't know you could cook like this." Last night for dinner when it had been Luthers turn to cook they'd eaten scrambled eggs over burnt rice. 

"Uh, well," Diego clears his throat. "Mom kinda maybe sorta prepared the whole meal?" 

Five fights his initial instinct to say 'no shit'. "You're making breakfast tomorrow, then. I'll write it down on the chart after dinner." he narrows his eyes at Grace, who simply gives him an all too innocent smile in return. "Pushover." he mutters under his breath. 

When everyone is finished eating Klaus and Vanya start working on the dirty dishes, one rinsing while the other dries. 

"Vanya, come here a minute." Five calls her over, ignoring the way Klaus whines when his dish washing buddy gets taken away from him. 

Vanya follows Five into the other room, far away from the others. She's been wondering all throughout dinner if he'd managed to get her a new refill, but hadn't dared to ask in front of everyone. 

Five hands Vanya a single pill. It's round and small and blue. Paroxetine. The forty milligram one she's used to taking twice a day. 

"You got them?" 

Five nods. "We'll lower your dose little by little-I don't want you going into a bad withdrawal if we rush things." 

Vanya stares at the pill in the palm of her hand. "Ok. Um, where's the bottle?" 

"In my room." 

"You don't trust me?" Vanya frowns. "To take my own meds?" 

Five sighs. "It's not about that. I'm just trying to do what's best for you, Vee." 

"Isn't it, though? You have no idea why dad was keeping me medicated, so you don't actually know what is or isn't best for me." she counters. At least Reginald had had enough faith in her to let her take her own meds, instead of dispensing them one at a time as though she were a child or some kind of mental patient. 

"Vanya, I-" Five lets out a frustrated groan. "I'm trying my best here, ok?" he says, a little helplessly. "You're right that I don't know why the hell dad was doing what he was doing, but I'm close to getting answers, I swear. You just need to be patient. I'm going to get to the bottom of this." 

Vanya stares at Five. Her big brother doesn't look all that 'big' right now, his slight frame swallowed up by his pajamas, dark hair ruffled, with dark circles under his eyes.

He just looks _tired_. 

"You don't have to do everything alone all the time." Vanya takes the pill and pops it into her mouth, dry swallowing it with a grimace. "We're not just a bunch of helpless kids Five. Keeping us in the dark is-" she looks down at her feet, avoiding eye contact. "It's what _dad_ did." And with that final, unintended blow to his ego, Vanya turns her back to Five and runs back into the kitchen to finish helping Klaus with the rest of the dishes. 

Five stands there for another minute, staring blankly at the spot where Vanya had once stood, before blinking upstairs to Graces charging station. 

Grace is just sitting down, getting ready to recharge for the night, when he interrupts her. "Do you mind if I work on you while you're charging up?" he asks. 

"Not at all," Grace gives him easy access to her circuitry, hand outstretched. "Although, you really should get some rest. You've had a long day." 

Five shakes his head. "M'not tired." he denies, sitting down beside her and taking hold of her arm. 

"Were you able to acquire what you needed?" she asks, instead of calling him out on his own bullshit, knowing that arguing won't get her anywhere. 

He nods. "They were closed. I had to break in." he admits. "I uh," Five looks up at her, just a tiny bit bashful. "I took a bunch of narcotics." 

Grace questions why, confused. "I thought you only needed Vanyas medication?" 

"Just taking the paroxetine would have looked too suspicious." he shrugs. "I took a few different doses for the paroxetine, some other inconsequential drugs and then a good chunk of narcotics from the back-I'll put them in the infirmary for you, later." 

"Vanya could have most likely waited until tomorrow before any signs of withdrawal began to manifest." Grace tells him. "The risk you took was unnecessary. It's unlike you." she looks at her son for a moment. "Are you alright, Five?" 

Five stops his tinkering, though he doesn't look up at her when he mutters, "I'm fine." 

"It's alright to ask for help. It does not make you weak." Grace raises her free hand up, reaching for Five's face, but startles when he flinches away from her touch. "Five?" 

Five gulps and swallows some air, trying to stop his pulse from racing. "Sorry. You're right, I'm tired," he closes the panel on her wrist. "I'm going to bed. G'night." he blinks away before she can say anything else. 

**************************************

He lands on his mattress with an _oomph_ and turns so that he's laying down on his back.

Five covers his face with both hands, letting out a frustrated huff. 

"Fiiiiive, Luther ate all the double stuffed oreos mom bought from the last grocery shopping trip, can you-" Klaus pauses mid word, already half way into his brothers room, unannounced. "Oof, you look like hot garbage." 

Five forces himself to sit up, grimacing in exasperation at the way the movement pulls at his side. "Do none of you know how to _knock_?" 

"Nonsense, we're family." Klaus strolls the rest of the way in and takes a seat atop Five's bed next to him. "Anyway, when is mom doing groceries again? I wanna' add some stuff to the list." 

"It's almost midnight." Five glares at the alarm clock on his nightstand, over Klaus' shoulder. "This couldn't have waited 'til morning?" 

Klaus shakes his head indignantly, as though he's insulted at even the mere implication that his extremely significant issue isn't time sensitive. "Absolutely not! Five, it's double stuffed oreos I'm talking about over here. This is of the utmost importance!" 

Five is two seconds away from kicking Klaus out of his room when he notices the slight tremor in hands, the one he thinks he's doing a great job of trying to hide. He sighs. "There's a seven eleven nearby. Do you want to-"

"Yes!" Klaus bounces on the bed, nodding eagerly. "I'll go get my shoes!" 

*******************************

It's chilly tonight; Five is glad he made Klaus put on a jacket before leaving the house. 

The seven eleven is only a few blocks away from the house, so they decide to walk-he thinks the crisp night air will do Klaus some good. 

Klaus takes a cigarette out from his back pocket and lights up, purposely not looking at Five. His hands are still shaking. 

Five lets him take a couple of puffs before silently holding out his hand. Klaus pouts but relents the lit smoke, fully expecting Five to flick it away. Instead, he surprised to see his brother take a puff, inhaling and exhaling like he's been doing it for ages. 

Klaus lets out an over exaggerated gasps. "You smoke?" 

"I shouldn't." he takes another puff before handing it back to Klaus. "I have asthma." he admits. "You shouldn't either." Five adds.

Klaus blinks at him. "You have _asthma_? Since when?" 

"Long story." He replies, cryptic as always. Post apocalyptic air is not good on the lungs. 

Klaus throws the cigarette down on the ground, stomping it out with the toe of his boot. 

Five arches a brow, surprised. 

Klaus shrugs. "I'm not a dick," he says, "I'm not gonna smoke around my asthmatic brother daddy." he wouldn't have in the first place, had he known. 

Five rolls his eyes at the nickname and holds the door open. He lets Klaus go buck wild and heads straight for the coffee machine, pouring himself an extra large cup for the road. 

The door chimes and in enter a bunch of drunk people in their early twenties-it's past one in the morning now, they must have just come out from the bars, Five thinks, keeping an eye on them as they roam the aisles. 

Two of the men veer off from the group, one of them purposely bumping into Klaus, who ends up dropping half the goodies in his possession, onto the floor. 

"Watch where the fuck you're walking." 

Klaus-who's never had much of any self preservation-doesn't bother to hide his eye roll, as he bends down to pick up his items. 

"Did you just roll your eyes at me, you little fa-" 

The guy is on his ass, holding his bloody mouth where Five just upper cut him, within seconds, staring up at him in shock. His friend reacts immediately, shoving Five back, "What the fuck, man!" He goes to throw a fist but Five catches it easily, twisting his wrist and bringing the man down to his knees in an instant. 

"You fellas don't have anything better to do on a Friday night?" Five waits until the man starts whimpering in pain before releasing him. 

The cashier watches with vague interest, clearly used to drunken brawls this late at night, but doesn't do much else. 

"Come on," Five nods at Klaus, stepping over both men on his way to the register. Klaus skips along behind him, looking back over his shoulder at the two downed men. 

Once they're outside, Klaus whistles loudly. "That was _bad ass_ , you totally just fought for my honor back there. You were like my knight in over sized jammy jams!" 

Five glances down at his pajamas. They're not _that_ big on him. Are they? "You ok?" 

Klaus laughs. "Duh. If I got nothing else, I got some seriously thick skin, being raised a Hargreeves. Comments like that don't bother me." 

"Mm," Five hums. "It would bother me." Hell, it _did_ bother him. He'd decked that guy so hard his knuckles are still throbbing in his coat pocket. 

Klaus looks at him, intrigued. "Not to pry, but, I mean, are you...?" 

"Gay?" 

"Or a variation of it." Klaus shrugs. "I like everybody." 

"I don't know, I haven't really had time to think about it." He replies, surprisingly candid. 

"Not even when you were dating your girlfriend, in the future?" Klaus knows his past-or rather, future-is a touchy subject, but he's curious and can't help himself from asking. 

Five reaches for the keys in his pockets; they're almost home. He wants to say that that's none of his business, but he thinks back to Vanya and the way her words had cut into him. She was right. He doesn't have to keep his brothers and sisters in the dark about everything all of the time. They should be allowed to know at least some parts of who he has become. 

He sighs, scratching the back of his head. "Our relationship wasn't very...typical." He has no idea how to explain what it was they had without sounding bat shit insane. He opens the front door, allowing Klaus inside first and locking it behind him. 

Klaus can tell Five isn't very comfortable, talking about the woman he had been forced to leave behind, and he respects that, changing the subject. "Well, either way, thanks for, ya know, standing up for me in there. You looked hella rad." he grins. 

"Anytime." 

They head into the kitchen, where Klaus dumps his bag of treats and snacks onto the table. "Ah _shit_ , I totally forgot to get oreos." He blows out a raspberry. "We gotta go back." 

Five, who's in the middle of taking off his coat, huffs and shrugs it back on. "You're lucky I forgot my coffee. C'mon." 

Klaus cheers, grabbing onto Five's arm on their way back out. "Man, I do not remember you being this much of a pushover. I like Daddy Five." 

"Call me that again and I'm eating all the oreos in front of you." he threatens. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading/commenting!!!! <3333333 :)


	12. Chapter 12

Five spends another sleepless night drinking too much coffee and working in his fathers study. 

Pogo finds him sometime around four in the morning. He stops as he enters the room, surprised to find Five there. "Master Five..." 

"Pogo," Five turns to him. "Is something the matter?" 

"It's late." Pogo frowns, concerned. "You look depleted of all reserves, Master Five. You really should get some rest." 

"You don't have to call me that." Five changes the subject. "You've known me my whole life. Just Five is fine." 

"Well," Pogo rectifies. "Not your whole life, but a good chunk of it, yes, I suppose you are right." 

"What are you doing up, anyway?" _In dads study_ is the unspoken part of that question. 

Pogo clears his throat. "Reminiscing, I suppose. Your father would often spend very late nights here, as well. At times that single mindedness with which you pursue your objectives, it reminds me of Master Hargreeves." 

"If one more person tells me I remind them of my father I might actually lose it." Five pinches the bridge of his nose. "Full offense, Pogo, but the man you knew and the man we grew up with are two different people. I know you think you owe him your life, but-" 

"I do," Pogo interrupts, face serious. "Without your father I would be but a simple primate in a zoo, stuck behind some rusty, decaying bars. Your father was a complicated man, but he meant well. I do so wish you could see that." 

"Right." Five turns away, "This is something you and I will never see eye to eye on. And that's fine." Except it's not. Not really. He'd been hoping that one day Pogo would try and see it through their eyes-through the eyes of terrified, tortured and exploited children-but that's never going to happen, Five thinks, so there's really no point in hoping. 

"Goodnight Mas-" Pogo corrects himself at the last second. "Five. Try and get some sleep before the sun rises, won't you?" 

"Night Pogo." 

**************************

The Handler is out there; it's not as if Five wasn't aware of that fact before, but she's close now, so much closer than he'd expected, in such a short time. 

He thought he would have two, maybe three months, before the Temps Commission caught wind of his location in time, but he should have known better than to underestimate The Handler. She wasn't one who easily let go of her play things. And, unfortunately, he was one of her favorite things to play with. 

So, with that dire thought in mind, it's no surprise, really, that Five ends up getting no sleep that night. It's not until nearly seven in the morning that someone else walks in on him in the study. He looks up, expecting Grace, or perhaps Pogo again, but instead finds Vanya. 

"I figured you'd be in here." she shuffles her feet by the doorway. "I'm just here for my pill." 

"Right, give me a sec, I'll go get them." Five stands up, only for vertigo to hit him immediately. He stumbles hard, nearly toppling over against the desk. 

Vanya leaps forward cautiously. "Are you ok?" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I stood up too fast, that's all." he shakes it off and starts for his room, where he keeps her meds. She follows along, brow furrowed with concern, acting as though he were about to keel over at any second.

He hands her a pill. "Here, we'll do another forty milligram tablet for the morning and at night I'll give you a slightly lower dose." 

"Ok." she pockets the pill. "Don't worry, I'm going to take it," she says, when she notices Five staring. "I just need some water from downstairs. You can come with me if you don't believe me." 

He dislikes this rift between him and Vanya-the one he's created. They had been so close, once upon a time. "That's not-" he sighs, rubbing at the side of his aching skull. He wonders if he can get Allison to come over and rumor this migraine away again. 

"Did you get any sleep?" 

"No, but that reminds me, I should start the coffee." He walks past her and downstairs into the kitchen. The children, he's discovered, all suck at preparing a half decent cup of coffee. It's the one chore he won't allow any of them do. 

By the time the coffee is percolating Diego has joined the two of them in the kitchen. Breakfast food is easier than dinner, so he's glad Grace took a bullet for him the previous night. Eggs, bacon and toast. Easy and relatively quick. 

The children sit down around the table one by one after that, the smell of bacon frying on the pan luring them in. Allison narrows her eyes at Five. "You look like crap." 

"That's what I said last night." Klaus chimes in. 

"Migraine." he concedes. His head is pounding and it's beginning to make him nauseous. "Do you mind?" he asks Allison. 

She understands without having to be told implicitly and walks over without any disinclination. "I heard a rumor your migraine was gone." 

And just like last time, the reverberating inside of his skull goes away. Five leans back into his seat, relieved. He still feels like shit, but not having to deal with the pain in his head is a godsend. "Thank you." 

"Breakfast is ready!" Diego announces, setting three large trays down in the middle of the table so that everyone can help themselves to the food. "Bon appetit." 

"You burnt the eggs-how did you even manage that? They're eggs." Luther criticizes. 

"I didn't say squat when you burnt the rice for dinner the other day, asswipe. So shut up and eat or starve." 

Klaus laughs at their bickering. "You totally did complain, though. Like, a lot." he remembers. 

Five picks at his toast, ripping it up into pieces instead of actually eating anything on his plate, not entirely paying attention to the conversation going on around him. He's glad now that the migraine has dissipated, but for some reason, it's been replaced with an extremely cumbersome buzzing noise. It's similar to the sensation of needing your ears to pop, times ten. 

He ponders yesterday; Five had managed to attach a tracker to The Handler when she'd come too close to him, so he knows exactly where she is, and thankfully she's nowhere close by, which means he can technically relax for the time being, but that is easier said than done. 

He knows eventually he'll need to succumb to sleep. 

After breakfast, Five decides, he'll take a break and try to get a few hours in. Even a three hour nap would do him some good. 

His side is _killing_ him. 

********************************

Pogo calls the children over to meditate in the garden after they're all done eating and the dishes have been cleaned, and Five is pleasantly surprised to see Klaus make the decision to take part with the rest of his siblings for the first time since they began in the daily exercise. 

Five means to go straight up to bed-he does, really-but he remembers Grace should be awake and about by now, and his brain is still full to the brim with all the coding information he'd learned the night before. He might as well work on her while it's all still fresh in his mind, he reasons. 

He finds her in the living room, watching from the big window as the children meditate with Pogo, she's smiling cheerfully at the sight. Grace remembers not too long ago, being forced to watch and stand by the side lines as the children trained rigorously and injured not only themselves but one another as well. 

Remembers being unable to do a single thing, unless Reginald gave her explicit orders. 

"Mom, you ready?" Five interrupts. 

Grace turns to him with knitted brows. She strides across the room without a word and touches his forehead with the palm of her hand. "Your temperature is at a hundred and two degrees. You're running a fever, Five." 

Five blinks at her, realizing he'd been so dazed he hadn't even reacted to her touch. "Oh." Is that why it's so hot in the room? Huh. 

"No work today." Grace announces unanimously, leading her son up the stairs and into his room, growing more and more worried when he doesn't fight her on her manhandling, going along without any bother. 

"Raise your arms." she has him shimmy out of his night shirt and lay down flat on his bed.

Grace scowls at the sight of dried blood smeared across the white bandage. "When did this occur?" carefully, she begins to peel away the dressing. 

Five winces. "I don't know." he lies, trying not to picture The Handler and her hand or the way it had dug it into him so bluntly. He hadn't bothered checking when he got home, but he wouldn't be too surprised if she'd ripped his stitches. 

Grace doesn't believe him one bit. "There is increased drainage from the wound; it is infected and you've torn out two stitches." she assesses critically. "Have you been taking the antibiotics I gave you?" 

"I've been busy." Five lays his forearm across his eyes and lets out a long, audible breath. " _Hurts_." he confesses, embarrassed when it comes out a soft whine. He's not a child anymore. He shouldn't be complaining to mommy over a boo boo at his age. 

"I'm going to grab supplies from the infirmary. You sit tight and wait for me, I'll be right back." 

Five wants to ask her not to go and leave him all alone. It has to be the fever, making him delirious; he feels so small and vulnerable, The Handlers words replaying in his head like a bad lullaby _you're a naive, lost little boy_. Maybe she's right, he thinks miserably. Maybe his fifteen years of isolation spent in the apocalypse stunted more than just his physical growth. 

Grace takes forever to return. It's probably only a few minutes, but to Five, whose fever has started to spike, it might as well have been a millennia of waiting. "Where'd you go?" he asks feebly, reaching out for her. 

Graces concern increases and she puts down her medical kit and the IV stand and bag she's brought with her and leans down to take Fives temperature again. "One oh three." she frowns. She needs to get his temperature down. Grace snaps a few ice packs and places them accordingly, in an attempt to cool Five down. 

Five makes a pained noise. "Freezing." he complains, his teeth already chattering. He hates the cold. He used to enjoy winters, until the apocalypse, where the winters had tried their best to abolish him from existence. 

"It will help." Grace assures him. "You are overheating." she sets up the IV stand and takes his arm, tapping to get a good vein before inserting the needle inside to get him fluids and antibiotics for the infection. "This will make you feel better, soon." Grace cleans out his wound, and though she is as gentle as she can manage, Five still writhes in pain, his fingers digging into the sheets beneath him to keep still. 

Once she's finished all her ministrations, Grace packs her things and asks, "Is there anything else you would like? I know you would prefer not to take any pain medication, but I can provide you with something over the counter; Advil, perhaps?" 

Five shakes his head. "No." 

Grace nods. "Alright then, I will be back to check in on you in a bit. You should get some sleep for now." 

Five mutters something under his breath, that even Graces enhanced hearing doesn't quite catch. "I'm sorry, what was that?" she turns around, the hem of her dress swooshing. 

Five shakes his head again. "S'nothing." Even though what he actually meant to say was: _please stay_.

Grace stares at him from the doorway a moment longer, but does take her leave. The children should be finishing up meditation in a few and she wants to make sure their chores get done before Pogo begins lessons. They've had a reprieve from home schooling this week, at Five's insistence that they get a break after all they'd gone through on Sunday. 

But the children have exams coming up soon, and should resume their learning, she decides. 

**********************

Klaus and Diego are the only two who complain about having to start up lessons again. "But I was gonna see how many marshmallows I could fit into my mouth without choking, today!" Klaus whines. 

Diego nods along. "And I was gonna beat his record!" 

Pogo chuckles. "And you can both still go through with your activities. After we finish our lessons for the day. Now come, open your work books to page one forty six." They review last weeks lessons before moving onto the next chapter. 

Grace makes sandwiches for lunch when they're finished studying, and as they take their seats around the table, Diego asks about Fives lack of presence. "I haven't seen him since breakfast." 

"His wound has become infected and he's developed a fever. I'm about to take soup upstairs to him now and check up on him." 

"He's sick?" Allison finishes the last of her lunch and wipes her hands on her napkin. "I can bring it up to him." she volunteers, already getting up. 

Grace smiles. "That would be nice. Come along then." she hands Allison the tray with the bowl of soup and packet of crackers atop. 

"I can help too." Diego bounds over and takes the glass of water from his moms hands. 

All of the children end up following Grace, like anxious little ducklings, right up to Fives room, where they find him in a fitful rest. 

Grace takes his temperature for a third time, frowning upon realizing it's only gone down by about a degree since the last time she verified. Five wakes up with a groan, blinking hazily up at Grace. "Mom?" 

"How are you feeling?" 

Five replies with a question. "The kids doin' ok?" 

"We're all just fine. Now answer the question," Allison sits down next to Grace on the bed. Five is pale and sweaty and his breathing is labored. "How are you feeling?" 

Five hadn't even realized there were other people in the room. That's not good. "I'll be fine." 

"That is so not an answer." Allison sighs, looking to Grace instead. "How is he?" 

"His fever has improved, but not by much, I'm afraid." 

"Don't freak them out, it's not that bad." Five reassures the children, or at least, he attempts to. The hacking cough that follows the sentence doesn't help at all. He grimaces, holding himself stiffly. He sits up, blinking past the black dots that dance in front of his eyes. "I need to get back to dads study." He still has a lot he needs to do and laying in bed all day isn't going to help him accomplish any of it. 

"I heard a rumor you couldn't get out of bed until I said so." Allison folds her arms across her chest authoritatively. 

Five glares up at his sister, realizing he's at her whim. "Unrumor me," he demands, " _Now, Allison_." 

She shakes her head adamantly. He's not the only stubborn one in this family. "No way. You're running on fumes and if you don't take a break you're never going to heal-there's no reason for you to be running yourself ragged like this. What the hell is so important you feel the need to work yourself into the ground?" 

Five tries to fight her rumor, but only ends up exerting energy he doesn't have, exhausting himself further. "Allison, I'm serious." he grinds out, his impatience growing. 

"I said 'no', and I meant it." Allison takes a deep breath, steeling herself, and she can see Fives eyes widen as he realizes what she's about to do. "I heard a rumor you were so sleepy you couldn't keep your eyes open." 

And just like that, Five collapses into the mattress, his eyes instantly drooping shut, the rest of him going completely limp. 

"He's going to murder you when he wakes up." Diego stares at Allison, looking almost afraid. 

Allison chews on her bottom lip, guilty. She doesn't feel good about taking advantage of Fives weakened state; he's been trusting her to only use her powers on him with his permission-something no one has ever trusted her to do. 

And now she's betrayed him. 

"It's for his own good." she says, though it sounds more like she's trying to convince herself more than anyone else in the room. She's hoping Five is so feverish he might not even remember this exchange, but doubts it severely. 

Allison gulps. Five can't possibly be _that_ mad at her when he wakes up; especially if he's recovered, thanks to her. 

Right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> five is NOT gonna be a happy camper. stay tuned! :) 
> 
> all ur comments give me life, thankuuuuuuuuuuuuu <3
> 
> and thank u to everyone reading :) !


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lucky number 13

A long, sharp nail trails slowly across the side of his face; the strange but familiar sensation is what stirs Five from out of his deep sleep. 

"Good morning sunshine." The Handler leans down and gives him a smooch on the forehead, leaving a big red smear where she's kissed him in greeting.

She backs away quickly when Five reacts, propelling forward to bash her face in with a glowing blue, balled up fist. 

With a horrified start, Five comes to the realization that he cannot move to follow her. When he tries, there's an invisible force which holds him firmly in place, weighing him down heavily. 

The Handler lets out a mocking roar of laughter. "Oh no," she makes a perfect little "O" with her mouth. "Is someone in time out? You know, as easy as this is going to be, it's also a little like taking candy from a baby: boring." she sighs. "You really do know how to take the fun out of things, don't you?" She turns on the heel of her stiletto and starts to make her way over to the open door, slow and deliberate. A show. 

"Get back here!" Five growls out, furious. "What the fuck are you doing?! Where are you going?!" 

She pauses at the entrance and swivels her head, her smile wide and devious. "Why, I'm going to go get rid of those pesky little pests you call a family. And then you're coming back with me, where you belong." 

"Stop!" Five fights viciously against Allisons rumor, to no avail. He's trapped in his own bed, unable to move, unable to blink and transport himself. When he tries, in fact, he's pulled painfully right back onto the mattress. " _Please_!" he begs, voice breaking, his heart pounding in his chest. "Please, I'll go with you, I swear to God I won't fight it, please. Leave them alone."

The Handler turns around fully. "Well now you've got my attention." her smile is feral. "Promise me. Promise me you'll be a good boy." 

"I promise!" Five half shouts without a shred of hesitation or dignity, only desperation and blood curdling fear running through his veins. He knows The Handler intimately, knows all too well what she's truly capable of... 

"Say. It." she commands. "Say, 'I promise I will be a good boy.' Go ahead. I want to hear the words out loud." 

Five grits his teeth. "I promise I will be a good boy." he repeats, terrified she's playing games, that she'll turn around with that sinister laugh of hers and bring back pieces of his family with her, just to get a reaction out of him. 

" _Please_." 

**************************

A hand touches his forehead and Five bolts up gasping for air. His fingers go around the wrist and he twists so violently that if said wrist had belonged to a human, the bone would have snapped. 

As it is, Grace blinks down at him and simply readjusts her wrist, the gears creaking slightly. "You were having a nightmare." she frowns. "But, fortunately, your fever has finally broken. How do you feel?" 

Five curses, his nerves completely shot. "Where's Allison?" 

"Asleep. It's a quarter past eleven." 

"Tell her to come here." 

Grace arches a brow. "It's night time. Surely this can wait until morning, no?" 

Five forces a too wide grin, his eye twitching with barely restrained rage. "Not if I want to keep from pissing the sheets like a fucking toddler, it can't." 

Grace doesn't waste any time after that, retrieving Allison, who she finds in her room, wide awake and pacing. "How is he?" she asks, when her mom knocks at her door. "Is he up? How's the fever?" 

Grace gently leads her daughter by the shoulders. "He would like to see you. And to answer your questions: he is livid. He is awake. And his fever has gone down exponentially." 

Allisons stomach drops when Five sets his eyes on her. Whatever hope she had been foolishly holding onto, that he would be even a little understanding, is dashed away when she's face to face with his ire. She opens her mouth to say...something, anything in her defense, but Five cuts her off with just a look. 

"Unrumor me." He grinds out. 

Allison gulps, finally finding her voice. "You needed the rest. I did it for your sake." 

"If I have to repeat myself..." Fives scornful glare cuts her to her core. 

"I heard a rumor you were free to get up out of bed." 

Allisons pulse is racing as she watches Five swing his legs over the bed and stand; it seems for a moment as if he's headed straight for her, but Five marches right past her, slamming the door behind him on his way out. Allison recoils at the sound and lets out a shuddering breath she hadn't been aware she'd been holding until now. 

"He's going to rip me a new one." she sighs, after a couple of minutes. She has no idea where he even went, but she knows that when he returns, he's going to let her have it good. 

Grace pats her back sympathetically. "Do not fret. Apologize and I am sure Five will accept. Given some time." 

Allison makes a face. "Wait, what? _Apologize_? I only did it for his benefit. He's just fine with me taking away his migraines. What's the difference between that and this?" 

The door opens up in that moment and she cringes away, nervously shuffling towards Grace. 

Part of her hopes he didn't hear a single word of that, but the bolder half dares him to deny her reasoning. She only did it to help. He shouldn't be upset, period. In fact, he should be grateful. 

Allison braces herself and starts to speak. "Five, I think-" 

"Get out." 

Allison stares at the back of him. He doesn't even bother turning around to address her. "W-what?" 

"You heard me." Five crawls back into his bed and throws the covers on over himself. 

"I-" Allison lets out an incredulous burst of laughter. "Seriously? You're serious, right now? You should be thanking me! If it weren't for me you'd probably be passed out in dads damn study with a fever so high what little brain cells you have left would have burnt to a crisp!" 

Five disappears from underneath the sheets and appears directly in front of Allison within half a second. She barely has time to jolt back in shock, when Five takes her by the arm and from one breath to the next, Allison is standing back inside of her own room, nauseous from the impromptu trip, and Five is nowhere to be seen. 

All that's left of him is a faint blue hue. 

She swallows back the nausea and stomps down the hall, chest heaving in anger. She reaches Fives room in record time and has to stifle a scream of indignation when she turns his doorknob. Or, attempts to do so. "You _locked_ your door?! Real mature! Really!" 

Allison is so pissed it feels like steam is literally shooting out from both ears. "Whatever! I don't need you anyway!" she yells through the mahogany. She bangs against the door once for good measure and stalks back to her room, slamming her door shut loudly enough to wake up the entire floor, if she hasn't already. 

She glares at the stupid American Girl doll on her bed, sat neatly above all of her pillows and without thinking it through even a tiny bit, she flings her window open roughly and tosses the doll right out. It's so dark outside she doesn't even see where the poor thing lands. 

"Stupid Five." she mutters, breath hitching, but refusing to let any tears fall. 

She is _not_ a weakling. 

******************************

If a stranger were to ask Luther who out of the Hargreeves siblings is the most stubborn, he would have to answer truthfully: It's a tie. 

Between Allison and Five. 

It has been three days now since either of them have so much as glanced in each others direction. 

Five has spent the majority of the last few days locked in his room rewriting Graces code. And Allison has stopped doing her chores altogether, has opted out of meditation sessions in the early mornings, and is refusing to go to Pogos home schooling lessons with the rest of the children. 

It is towards the end of day three that Vanya and Luther-an unlikely pair-team up and decide to confront Five. They catch him in their fathers study, scrutinizing some notes on the desk. 

The door is ajar but Vanya knocks anyway, to announce their presence. She's noticed Five has been a little jumpier lately. 

Five glances up, surprised to see the two together. Vanya and Luther have never been particularly amicable, but they've also never been particularly unpleasant to the other, either. 

"Allison stopped coming to meditate in the mornings." Luther says. 

Five shrugs. "They're not mandatory." 

Vanya bites her lip. "She's skipped three lessons this week." 

"She can always make up the work." Five replies unsympathetically, flipping the page in front of him. 

Luther huffs. "Well how about the chores then? It was her turn to do laundry yesterday and now none of us have clean clothes! You need to go and talk to her." 

Five frowns. So that's what this is. They're not tattling out of spite, they're trying to get the him and Allison on better terms again, and of course, the first step is to get them to actually speak to each other. "Go tell Pogo. He'll have a talk with her in the morning." 

"You're really not going to talk to her?" Vanya looks disappointed, those big round eyes staring up at him pointedly, like knives. 

Five shakes his head. "What good would it do?" Allison has clearly already made up her mind that what she did to him he should be grateful for-there is no discussion to be had. 

"You're supposed to be the guardian here! The rest of us are all _your_ wayward kids!" Luther exclaims. "You keep saying we're just children and that we should act like it-but that means someone needs to be the adult here! And newsflash: that's you!" 

Vanya nods beside him, determined. "It's been three days." 

Five hates that they're making sense. He remembers now why dad had put Luther in charge of the team. The kid really knew how to kick peoples asses into gear. He sighs, loudly, tilting his head back so that he's staring up at the high ceiling. " _Fine_." he begrudges. He hops off the desk, stretching out his back and neck and walks past the two children. 

"So you're going?" Luther and Vanya tag along behind him. 

Five grimaces. "Yes." 

"You're gonna talk to her?" 

"No, I'm going to stare at her until we develop telepathic powers." 

Luther rolls his eyes. "Could'a just said yes." 

Five stands at her door and raises his knuckles to knock, before pausing and turning around to face his two shadows, arching a brow. "You two can go. I promise to keep it civil." 

Reluctantly, Vanya and Luther depart, though he wouldn't be surprised if they waited until he entered the room to scuttle back and put their ears to the door. Sighing, Five knocks and waits for Allison. 

"What?" she throws open the door, and clearly she's not expecting Five, because immediately she goes to shut it right on him. 

Five holds it open at the last second. "I'm just here to talk." 

"I don't care. I don't want to talk to you. Go away." she glares daggers at him. "Or should I _rumor_ you away?" 

Five backs away, letting her slam the door in his face. 

Satisfied, Allison turns around, only to bump right into Five. She yelps, startled, "What the hell! Five, get out of my room! _Now_!" she demands. 

"Is that what we're doing now? Respecting each others boundaries?" Five chuckles. "News to me." he strolls casually over to her window and inspects the buds of cigarettes there. "Since when do you smoke?" 

Allison folds her arms across her chest. "None of your business. I heard-" Five disappears before she can get close enough to rumor him out of her space. 

" _Boo_." 

Allison jumps when he appears behind her again. "You're an asshole!" she pivots to face him, growing more and more furious. "What do you want?!" 

"Why are you skipping lessons and shirking on your chores?" 

"I can do whatever I want." Allison folds her arms across her chest haughtily. "Dad's dead and you're not the boss of me, even if those stupid custody papers state otherwise. I mean, really," she scoffs. "What are you gonna do about it? Ground me? Oh wait, that's right, already grounded-so, you know, good luck enforcing your so called _authority_ over me." 

"You have the power to manipulate whomever you want, whenever you want, Allison." Five shakes his head. "I'm well aware I have no authority over you. I didn't come back here with the intention of-" 

"So why did you?" 

"What?" 

"Why did you even come back?" Allison flares her nostrils at him. "We were doing just fine without you. I don't need you. None of us do. You wanted out of this place so bad you literally time traveled into the fucking _future_ and then decided to stay there for seventeen years!" 

" _I didn't have a choice_!" Five screams, astonished by the fury in his voice. "I spent every single one of those seventeen years trying to find my way back to you numskulls!" 

"Oh please," Allisons fists are shaking at her sides. "I bet you built a great new life for yourself without the rest of us there, holding you back. You abandoned us and never thought twice, just admit it! Everything went to hell after you left us! If you hadn't been such an arrogant ass, Ben never would have died! Everything bad that's happened since, it's your fault Five! So don't come to me now acting like you're so holier than thou with all these good intentions, not after you're the reason our family will never be whole again!" 

Allison watches her words take the wind out of Fives sails and instantly regrets what she's said.

"Right." He clears his throat and turns to look out the window. She can see the reflection of his face on the glass; his expression is unreadable, closed off. "I know it's my fault." 

Allison wishes there was a way she could take her careless words back. "I-" she takes a deep breath. "I didn't mean to say that." 

"But you've been thinking it." Five still won't face her. "It's ok." he says. "I know it's on all of your minds. And it's not like you're wrong. If I had just stayed, all those years ago, if I hadn't run away and acted like such a-such a-" he struggles to find the right word. 

"A _child_?" Allison finishes for him, softly. "You were just a kid..." 

Five wraps his arms around himself and for a moment he looks so small standing there, that Allison can almost perfectly picture the young boy who'd disappeared from her life just over a year ago, now. 

Allisons anger has been drained out of her entirely, and she feels empty now that the one thing she's been holding onto so fiercely for the last three days is suddenly gone. "I'm still mad." she says, when she really means 'lost'. "I only rumored you to keep you from hurting yourself." 

Five finally looks at her. "This conversation really went off the rails, huh?" he sighs, leaning his hip against the windowsill. "Look, Allison, I know why you did it. But I need you to understand _why_ it wasn't ok." 

Allison walks over and sits down on her bed. "I've rumored your migraines away before. It's the same thing. I wasn't doing it to hurt you. I only do that with the bad guys." she reasons, brows knitted in confusion. 

"It's not the same thing. I _allowed_ you to rumor me those other times, I gave you permission. That last time? You didn't have my consent, and you did it knowing I was too sick to get away." Five sits down next to her. "Not having control of myself or my actions is...frightening." 

Allison gulps. "You were scared? Of me?" 

"Well," Five shrugs. "Mostly I was scared of pissing the bed." 

Allison lets out an unexpected burst of laughter. "I'm sorry." and then, more sober, she looks up at him, past her curls. "Seriously. I'm sorry. I just wanted you to rest and feel better. Rumoring people is the only way I know how to do...well, anything, I guess." she frowns. She'd never given her powers too much thought before. "Do you hate me?" 

"I could never." Five shoves her shoulder gently. "Did I want to drop kick you down the stairs? Yeah, maybe a little." he shrugs. "But I could never hate you, Ally." 

She hasn't heard him use that nickname in what feels like a lifetime. "You _wish_ you could drop kick me. That would require you to catch me, first, old timer." she shoves him back, a small smirk playing on her lips. 

"You know, you all keep saying that like I'm a hundred or something. I read in Glamour that thirty is the new twenty, so..." 

Allison gives him a look. "You read Glamour magazine?" She's seen a few issues pop up lately in the bathrooms, but had assumed Grace had been the one to update those magazines, during her trips to the grocery store. 

"I read a lot of things." Five deflects. "Come on, up and at 'em." He drags her out of bed and into the hall. 

"Where are we going?" 

"To the basement." Five replies. "There's no way I'm letting you get out of doing laundry." 

Allison groans. "You're seriously gonna make me touch Diego's dirty underwear?" 

"We'll wear gloves. You'll live." 

"You're gonna help me?" 

"Yes. Out of pity." Five folds his hands behind his back as he walks forward, Allison trailing not too far behind. "That, and all my clothes are in the hamper." 

******************************

Five isn't sure if Allison fully understands, even after their extensive conversation in the laundry room, why she shouldn't rumor her loved ones-no matter how small or inconsequential the rumor may be, unless expressly told to-but she's promised for the time being to try and reign herself in when and if she felt the urge. 

It's at times such as these that he wishes he were better with words.

And not only words, but with morals, as well.

After the life he's led, up until this very point, it feels hypocritical to lecture Allison-or any of the children, for that matter-on what is right and what is wrong. 

It's difficult to say: _You shouldn't abuse your powers for personal gain._

When for the last two years it's all Five has done. He can tell himself all he wants that it was all for a good reason. He did it all in order to survive, in order to save the world, in order to ensure the lives of his family. Surely the ends justify the means, no? It's not as if he had much of any other choice. Right? 

But none of it makes it any easier to sleep at night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> grace finds the american girl doll at some point and cleans her up before handing it back to allison, who may or may not cry 
> 
> in the next chapter the kids convince five to play hide and seek! (and a whole mess of other things occur......) 
> 
> hopefully i'm able to update again by Wednesday! :) thanku all so much for the support! <333333333333


	14. Chapter 14

"Hey Five," Diego peeks his head inside of the study. "Can you come help me find everyone?" 

"What?" Five stares at him. "Wait, what do you mean 'find everyone'?" He blinks so that he's suddenly standing right in front of Diego, alarmed when he asks, "What happened?" 

Diego holds both his hands up. "Dude, _chill_. We're playing hide and go seek." 

Five tilts his head, genuinely befuddled. "Why?" 

Diego shrugs. "Just seemed like a fun idea. We've never played before." The truth is, Luther had suggested it earlier that morning; as an exercise in which they could all hone their stealth skills. 

But now, about a half hour in, Diego has come to the realization that combing through forty two rooms plus a court yard requires at least two people. 

And really, who better to help than the man who can literally teleport through space and time itself? 

For once, Five has time to kill. He's just finished rewriting Graces code; it's going to be a while before she's done rebooting and functional once again. 

"Alright, sure." He agrees easily. This game should at least serve as a decent distraction from the long wait time, he thinks, following Diego. "Where have you already looked?" 

"So far I've checked all their rooms, the the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. Oh, and I guess the study , too. Though, with you in there all morning I doubt any of them coulda' snuck past." 

Five hums thoughtfully. "Have you check your room?" 

Diego shakes his head. "Why would any of them be in there?" 

Five smirks. "Ten bucks says Allison is hiding in your closet." 

"You're on!" Diego runs ahead, flinging open his bedroom door. 

Five is already on the other side, sitting cross legged on his bed, waiting for the grand reveal, having blinked in from the hall. 

Diego gapes when he finds Allison, just as Five said, sitting in his closet, painting her nails a bright blue. 

Allison starts, messing up the second coat on her pinky. "How did you find me already?!" she stumbles out of the closet and glares at Five, who raises a hand to wave teasingly. " _You_!" she points at the culprit accusingly, and then turns back to Diego. "That's cheating!" 

"Ha! We never said in the rules that we couldn't recruit any help!" Diego states, sticking his tongue out at her triumphantly. 

Allison rolls her eyes, grudgingly accepting defeat. "Alright geniuses. Where to next?"

They both look to Five, who shrugs. "I've done my part. It's someone elses turn to use their brain." 

"Did you check the library?" Allison asks Diego, who shakes his head. 

"Not yet." 

"Vanya might be in there." Allison knows it's one of her sisters favorite places to spend her time; it would make sense for her to find a hiding spot somewhere that's so familiar and comfortable to her. "Let's go." she says, leading the troops downstairs. 

Five is pleasantly surprised to find that they've included Vanya in their game without any coaxing on his behalf. 

He does a half assed job of looking for her once they're in the library, making a show of looking under books, mostly letting Diego and Allison do all the hard work. It's nice to see them having such a good time, and more than that, getting along without (too much) bickering. 

"Aha!" Allison crows victoriously. "Found you!" 

Vanya peeks up at Allison from under her bangs. She pouts. "I thought no one would bother looking in here." She stands up from her crouch behind the big bookshelf with a sigh. 

"Alright," Allison folds her arms across her chest. "That just leaves Klaus and Luther. Ideas?" 

Diego purses his lips pensively. "They could be hiding anywhere. I say we split up into teams of two and whichever team finds the other first, wins." 

Allison rolls her eyes. "Wins what, exactly?" 

Diego tries to come up with something, but Vanya beats him to it. "How about, whichever team wins has to do the other teams chores for a week?" she suggests, surprised by her own outspokenness. It must be the recent decrease in her meds, she thinks, cheerfully. 

"I like it." Allison grins. "I'm teaming up with Vanya." she grabs onto her sisters arm and starts pulling her away. "Good luck, losers!" she half yells as they run off. 

Five, who was only half paying attention, looks at Diego for confirmation. "Wait, did I just get roped into doing their punishment chores if we fail?" 

Diego groans. "Oh my God, we're gonna' lose, aren't we?" 

"Not if I have anything to say about it. Let's think: what is the one room in this house nobody would think to step foot in. That's where Klaus will be." Five hypothesizes. 

Diego nods in agreement. "I mean. There's Dad's room..." he looks uncomfortable at just the thought of snooping in there. "Oh! And Pogo's room!" 

"Great. You go to Pogo's, I'll search Dad's. Call out if you find Klaus and we've got this in the bag." 

Diego eagerly leaves the library, running full speed ahead. Five watches with faint amusement before blinking to Reginald's room. It's not dusty, which means in the past month since his passing, Grace-or someone-has been in here, continuing to clean the vacant space and keep things orderly. Even the sheets have been changed, he notes. 

His gut churns at t he sight of the bed. Five can almost picture his fathers face, gone slack jawed as the poison took effect. Reginald had looked almost peaceful, as though he were asleep, except for the rising and falling of his chest, of course. 

He shakes himself to get rid of those thoughts and begins to explore the room, looking under the bed, inside of the closet, behind the armoire-but turns up with nothing. "Hmm." Five blinks out of the room and starts to walk down to Pogo's. 

The image of Pogo asking Diego to please respect his space as the kid throws shit around the room looking for Klaus makes Five smirk a little. 

_"What the fuck is this?!"_

Five hears the screech from all the way upstairs and blinks into Pogo's room instantly, concerned. "Diego? What's wrong-" he pauses. 

Diego is sitting in front of a small old television set in Pogo's room. He's playing a video tape. And right there on the screen is Reginald, callously taking notes as he watches Diego struggle to hold his breath under a large tank of water. He's younger than he is now, in present day. Maybe six years old. He's so small. And his eyes tell stories of terror as he bangs uselessly against the glass, begging to be let out. 

"Diego..." 

Number two turns around, his face angry and tear streaked. "He _knew_!" Diego's fists are clenched tightly on his lap. "Pogo knew this whole time!" He's so mad he's shaking uncontrollably. 

Five doesn't know what to say. He stands at the door, completely faltering. There are tapes.

Each one labeled accordingly:

**N1: Capacity 1993**

**N4: Mausoleum 1997**

**N6: Dimension 1994**

**N2: Target 1995**

**N5: Food 1991**

**N3: Phrase 1992**

There are countless more tapes, all with similar titles, scattered haphazardly across the floor. "What the fuck..." Five mutters. He can't even look at them without feeling bile rise up in the back of his throat. 

Diego suddenly stands up and shoves right past Five. "Pogo!" He yells. 

Allison and Vanya come over to the corridor, Luther right along with the girls. "We won!" Allison announces, laughing right up until she sees the state her brother is in. "Hey, whoa, what's the matter? What's going on? Are you ok?" 

"Where is he?!" Diego is still visibly shaking. 

"Who? What's wrong?" Luther frowns. "Are you still looking for Klaus?" 

" _Pogo_!" Diego shouts, "Where the fuck is that son of a bitch?!" 

The children all gape at Diego, shocked at the exclamation. Nobody talks about Pogo like that. Not even Klaus, who's known infamously around the Hargreeves household as a potty mouth, would dare speak badly on Pogo's name. 

"Diego, you need to calm down," Allison says, eyes wide. "I saw Pogo in the garden earlier-what the hell happened?" 

Without another word he spins around and starts for the back door to the courtyard. 

The others follow quickly, unsure and growing extremely concerned as the seconds tick away without a proper explanation and the tension rises. 

Pogo is in the middle of watering his hydrangeas, whistling a little tune to himself, when Diego spots him. He grabs a rock off the ground and flings it with all of his force, directly at Pogo. Five appears out of thin air, blocking Pogo and catching the rock with his bare hands as it's about to hit it's intended target. 

Five drops it with a wince. Diego's stronger than he remembers. "Diego, _stop_!" He commands. "This is not the way we resolve shit." 

Diego shakes his head. "You saw that tape!" He screams. "He knew this whole time! He knew what Dad was doing! And he didn't do anything!" 

Behind him, Luther asks, "What the hell are you talking about?" 

Diego turns around. "Pogo has tapes! They're in his room!" 

Allison frowns, "What?" 

Vanya gulps. "Maybe we should call a family meeting..." 

Diego glares at her, absolutely furious. "Vanya just butt out already! This isn't about you!" 

" _Enough_!" Five's voice booms across the courtyard. "Family meeting. Now." He looks at Pogo, who's frozen, stock still beside him. "That includes you. Living room, let's go." 

Slowly, the children do as they're told and march back inside, Pogo trailing very hesitantly behind them, and at a great distance.

Five blinks a few feet away, behind a large bush near the humongous statue of Ben, scaring Klaus into nearly falling backwards off his perch. He catches him before he can fall all the way. "Family meeting. Let's go." 

Klaus pouts. "How'd you find me?" 

Five arches a brow. "I have a nose." he pointedly looks at the buds on the ground, unimpressed. "Come on, before Diego stabs Pogo." 

"Well, shit on a stick, color me excited." 

******************************

Diego is pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, wearing grooves into the floors, by the time Five and Klaus finally show up, less than a couple of minutes later. 

Allison plops herself down on the couch and huffs out an irritated sigh. "I heard-" she stops herself from rumoring Diego into standing still, snapping her mouth shut as soon as she realizes what she's about to do. 

Five gives her a look-she's not quite sure what it means, but it's not disapproving. And that's good, no? A step in the right direction, even. 

Pogo clears his throat, straightening the collar of his suit. "I do not appreciate my privacy being invaded." 

"That's rich, coming from you!" Diego snarls. "I saw the tape! You watched me fucking _drown_! I thought you were on our side, but that was a big fat lie!" 

Klaus sighs. "I'm so confused. Did I win at hide and go seek or...?" 

Diego glares at him. "Shut up, Klaus!" 

"Hey, stop lashing out like an asshole and maybe fill the rest of us in on what the heck is going on!" Luther barks. 

Five, who's been uncharacteristically quiet, finally speaks up. He wishes like hell that Graces upgrade was done and that she were here right now. Mom always knows how best to comfort Diego. He addresses Pogo first. "We were playing hide and seek. We thought Klaus was hiding in your room. Diego went in to look and he..." Five swallows. "He found some tapes you've been keeping for dear old dad. Would you care to explain yourself?" 

"Wait, what tapes? There are tapes? Of dad?" Luther frowns, curious. 

"They're dad's tapes! Tapes of _us_!" Diego is still shaking. "He video taped all the fucked up shit he d-d-did to us! And Pogo knew about them! They were hidden under his bed!" 

"Dad took video of...us?" Allison thinks she might be sick. There's recorded evidence of all the monstrosities Reginald has made her rumor into existence during her training sessions? Is that what they're saying? "But, why-why would he do that?" She looks at Pogo, eyes large and glassy with unshed tears. "Pogo, you knew about what-" She can't even say it out loud. 

Allison has known for years that though Grace does her best to care for them, she's never had full control of her actions, and so it had been impossible for Allison to blame her when she simply stood by as Reginald did as he pleased with them. 

But Pogo? 

"You _knew_?" Allison's voice cracks. 

Pogo looks away, and he at least has the decency to look ashamed. "I could not betray Master Hargreeves. He saved me." 

"That's great, you were saved, so fuck the rest of us, right?" Diego spits out. 

"Master Hargreeves took you all in, when your own mothers denied you children." 

Diego sucks in a breath, like he's been sucker punched. "Fuck you!" he kicks over a stool and quickly scurries upstairs. He needs to find Grace. 

"Diego!" Five calls out, but it's no use. Diego doesn't acknowledge his name or halt, disappearing as he rounds the corner. 

Luther looks miffed. "What's even his problem?" 

Klaus stares at him like he's grown another head right in front of him. "Dude, are you high? What do you mean? Did you-were you not mentally present just now for all that?" 

Luther rolls his eyes. "So, Pogo has taped recordings of the training dad put us through, what's the big deal? It was just training." 

Allison stands, arms around herself and follows Diego's example, hurrying out of the room without another word. Everything feels off. Wrong. 

"Allison..." Five is surprised that she, of all people, is choosing to run. Allison has always been the confrontational type, not giving a damn what anybody thought of it. 

She stops at the stairs briefly but doesn't turn around. "I-" Allison shakes her head and dashes up the flight before Five has a chance to change her mind. She needs some space. 

"You're all overreacting." Luther reasons. 

Klaus laughs, loudly. "Uh, more like, you're overwhelmingly _under_ reacting. This game sucks. I'm out." He slinks away, fingering the lighter in his pocket. He mutters something to the side of him but nobody can quite make it out, and Five doesn't bother trying to stop another person from leaving this so called family meeting. 

"This was a waste of time." Luther walks away, too. He can't help but look back at Pogo as he makes his way to his room. He willfully ignores the feeling of something not right that tugs at his gut. This will all blow over in the morning. Diego has always had a flair for the dramatic, after all. 

Five sighs, feeling bone tired suddenly. "Vanya, I think it's safe to say the meeting is over. You can...I don't know, go to your room or, do whatever you'd like." 

Vanya's eyes dart between Pogo and Five for a moment. "I want to see them." she blurts out. 

The two of them stare at her with twin perplexed expressions. 

"The tapes." she specifies. "Can I see?" 

Five wants to say no, and why, and _how_. Just watching those few seconds of that tape with Diego thrashing in that tank, trying not to gasp for a breath of air? His stomach is still trying to rebel against him. 

"Please?" 

Five has always had a hard time saying no to Vanya. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update took a while bc real life lol but i hope it was worth the wait! 
> 
> next chapter vanya sees a little of what her siblings have been going through while she's been sidelined & grace finishes rebooting!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: CHILD ABUSE & EATING DISORDER BOTH DISCUSSED/PORTRAYED 
> 
> PLEASE HEED WARNING.

Pogo doesn't utter a word of complaint when Five marches into his room and collects all of the cassette tapes, dumping them unceremoniously into a cardboard box. Vanya stands beside him silently. 

"I'm confiscating these." Five looks at Pogo, eye twitching involuntarily. "Anything else you want to share with the class?" 

Pogo stares him right in the eye. "Nothing _you_ would want getting out, I presume." 

Five almost drops the box on the floor, but somehow manages to keep his grip. "Dads faithful lapdog, even in the afterlife, huh?" He snarks, though there isn't much heat behind the words. 

"I would appreciate being left alone, if you two don't mind closing the door on your way out." Pogo doesn't rise to the bait, folding his arms across his chest instead and letting them vacate his premises. 

"Right." 

******************************

Vanya follows Five like a wayward pup. "You never answered my question." she says. 

Five looks at her. "Why? What are you hoping to get out of it? Those tapes...I haven't seen them, but I can't imagine they're easy to watch, Vanya." 

Vanya shrugs but insists, determined. "I don't know. But I just-I'm always the _outsider_. I need to know. Please." 

Five sighs. "There's a VHS player somewhere in the attic, I think. Come on." 

It's old and covered in dust. No one has been in the attic for a while. Not even Grace, who keeps the rest of the manor spotless, has made her way up there. They find an old cable television and Vanya helps Five set it up with the VHS player. 

They sit down on the creaky wooden panels on the floor and Five switches the television on. "Here." He passes her the box of cassette tapes without looking to see which one she picks to see first. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't need to see the tapes-he was in some of them, after all-but he can't leave Vanya to watch them all alone. 

It would simply be too cruel. 

So he steels himself and watches as she crawls over to the VHS player and inserts a tape labeled: 

**N4: Summon 1994**

The fuzzy screen turns a gradient technicolor. 

_"Dad, please!" Klaus cries out. He's five and so very little and so very scared, scratching at his bedroom door. "They're in here! Please!"_

_The camcorder is placed somewhere above Klaus' room. He bangs his fists against the door, begging time and again to be let out. He's seemingly alone in the room. And from beyond his door Reginald can be heard faintly mumbling to himself, ignoring Number Fours cries for mercy._

_"There is nothing there." Reginald finally responds, after a few minutes. "Show me and I will consider letting you out."_

_Klaus continues to sob, his small frame shaking something awful. "Daddy I can't, I'm scared, there's so many, please! I promise I'm not lying!"_

_Reginald mumbles something to himself again, and then out loud, says, "But you are. I see nothing. You will stay in your room until the sun rises, unless you can prove to me that there are others in there with you." He sighs audibly. "You have the ability to make them appear-stop wasting your talents and my time, Number Four."_

_Klaus is crying so hard his chest is heaving. He slides down to the floor, huddling against the door. "Daddy please! Please! Please! I'll be good, I'm_ sorry _, I don't know what I did, please let me out!"_

_"I see you've made your choice, then." Reginalds steps can be heard walking in the opposite direction and Klaus starts to claw desperately at the door._

_"No! No! Come back! Daddy, come back!" he chokes on his own saliva and starts to cough, "They're here, I swear!"_

_Out of nowhere eight blue figures manifest around Klaus. Three of them are surrounding him, yelling obscenities at the five year old and demanding to be heard. The others are roaming about the room listlessly._

_"Please!" Klaus screeches-_

Vanya ejects the tape, eyes wide and wet with tears. "Dad was a fucking monster...." she gasps out. Her face feels numb with despair. "Oh my God." She turns to Five, "Did you know about-" she stops mid sentence and swallows down the rest of her words. "Did he do that to you?" 

Five shakes his head. He's sitting ramrod straight and still as can be. "Have you seen enough?" 

Vanya wipes her hands on her lap, nervously. She doesn't answer. Instead, she searches through the box and picks another tape. This one is labeled: 

**N2: Projectile 1997**

_Diego was small for his age, at eight. And it shows on the video recording. Especially when in the court yard Reginald stands at a distance with a rifle and begins to shoot at the child._

_Diego looks absolutely terrified, doing his best to dodge the bullets._

_As Reginald is reloading Diego drags in a breath, bent over, hands on his knees, and asks if he can have a ten minute break. "My chest hurts." he complains._

_"All of this whining is part of the reason you will never be as good as Number One, Number Two." Reginald replies, aiming for Diego and pulling the trigger without any warning._

_Diego throws himself on the ground, just narrowly avoiding getting shot in the chest. "I'm tired!" he cries out, wiping dirt from his face._

_"Training is finished when I say it is finished." Reginald shoots again, this time aiming for Diego's head._

_Diego dodges just a millisecond too late and suddenly there's blood all over the side of his face and the front of his clothes. Reginald sighs, exasperated, and he starts his trek back inside, not bothering to stop to examine the child on the ground, or even to spare him a glance._

_Diego lays there with a hand over the side of his skull, sobbing into the dirt and shaking until a few minutes later, when Grace appears. "M-m-mommy!" he cries. "H-he sh-shot me! It h-h-hurts!"_

_Grace is smiling her usual go-lucky smile, but there's a crack in the facade as she bends over to pick Diego up into her arms. "I need to see, please remove your hand." She looks relieved when she inspects the wound. "It's only a graze. You will be alright. I promise." She holds him close to her chest and carries him inside._

Even as the tape ends, Vanya can only stare at the static on the screen in shock. She doesn't have any words. 

"Dad shot Diego in the _head_..." 

Five and Vanya turn to Luther, who had snuck into the attic at some point during the featured video. 

Luther shakes his head. "Why would he do that? Why did he use real bullets? That-he could have _killed_ Diego!" he shouts. He's shaking. 

Five walks over to him slowly, so as not to spook him, seeing that he's already in such a state. "Luther, I think you should sit down. You don't have to watch this-" he looks to Vanya. "We can take a break, come back to this later." and then back to Luther. "Kitchen? I can make you a snack." he offers lamely. He's trying himself still, to rationalize what he just witnessed. Fucking Christ, Reginald...

Luther shakes his head. "No, no, I-I want to see." He makes his way over to Vanya and sits down beside her. "I-" he shudders. "I didn't know it was that... _bad_. I didn't know, I swear." 

Five sits down with the pair and gently pats him on the shoulder. "That's not your fault, Luther." He doesn't want either of the children to watch the horrors of those tapes, but in a twisted way, he does realize that watching them might help in the long run. 

Vanya passes Luther the box, "You can pick if you want?" 

Luther grimaces. He digs his hand inside without looking and grabs one at random. This one is labeled: 

**N6: Stomach 1990**

_Ben is barely a year old and already his powers have begun to manifest. His body is strapped down to a metal table-it looks like the infirmary. And he's crying; these big fat tears rolling down his chubby little cheeks. He's in a blue onesie and underneath, where his belly is, the recording shows something moving._

_Reginald hovers above the child. He dons on a pair of medical grade gloves and a mask and then he holds up a sharp scalpel._

Luther ejects the tape quickly, practically ripping it out from the VHS. "I-I can't." he shakes his head, horrified. "He was gonna cut into-into Ben." 

Vanya is glad he stopped the tape before any gory details could emerge. She's trembling where she sits. "Ben was just a baby." she mutters. 

Five nods but doesn't say anything. His palms are clammy and he wishes he hadn't drank any coffee this morning, because he can feel it rebelling in his stomach. 

Luther randomly picks another tape and shoves it inside the VHS. The label, if any of them had bothered reading it, reads: 

**N5: Food 1991**

_Five is a toddler, aged two. And he's in the court yard with Reginald, looking famished. "Hungry." he says, eyes wide ad round with want._

_"You cannot rely on food as the source for your power, Number Five." Reginald reprimands. "Now, do it again."_

_Five doesn't look like he understands how the concept of his hunger and the training of his powers connect, but does as instructed, blinking from one spot to the other. There are markers on the ground which indicate where he should land._   
_He misses it by an inch and Reginald whacks the back of his knees with a cane._

_"Stop messing about. Do it right. Again."_

_The toddler begins to cry, the stinging only adding to his hunger and misery. "Hungry!" he holds his belly and hiccups on a sob._

_Reginald glares at him. "If you cannot go a mere forty eight hours without food to fuel your powers, then what good are you? Go._ Again _."_

_Five, though still crying, blinks on command, this time landing directly on the marker._

_"Good." Reginald nods and takes down some notes in his journal. "You will be skipping supper tonight for your lack of obedience today. You may have breakfast in the morning if you behave at the table during dinner. Understood?"_

_Five falls to the ground and gags, vomiting, dizzy and exhausted from the rigorous training, but there's nothing in his stomach, and only retched bile comes up._

_Reginald raises his cane again and swings down-_

This time it's Five who ejects the tape. 

Vanya stares at him, her brow furrowed. "Dad _starved_ you?" 

Five shakes his head. "Not all the time. Once the old man realized how far just a little sugar could actually get me, in terms of travel distance, he started letting me have sweets-I just wasn't allowed any big meals." He shrugs. Which, in retrospect, is probably part of the reason Five managed to survive in the apocalypse for so long...  
He'd already been so accustomed to the starvation. 

Luther stares at Five in shock. "Is that why you don't eat?" 

Five stares right back at him, confused. "What? I eat." 

Luther shakes his head adamantly. "But you don't, not really. I only ever see you drinking coffee. You skip meals all the time and really only eat if mom is making you." 

Five rolls his eyes. His skin feels itchy and he hates it. He shouldn't have let them see the tapes. "Look, I'm a grown man, you don't need to worry about me. It's my job to look after you. I eat fine, thank you very much." 

Vanya and Luther trade looks of concern. "Just because you're older doesn't mean we can't look after you, too." Vanya says determinedly. 

"You're still one of us." Luther adds. 

Five clears his throat and turns away, "I think we've seen enough for today, no?" he gestures towards the door. 

Vanya stares at the box for a moment longer. "You're not getting rid of them, are you?" 

Five sighs. "I guess not." He doesn't know what to do with them. Part of him wants to burn the stupid tapes and just be rid of all the evidence of their fucked up childhoods. But he knows Vanya and Luther-Luther most especially-need an eye opener to the man Reginald really was. 

He thinks about Pogo and how the primate had kept these-probably taken them from out of his deceased Masters study-and hidden them away from everyone. He thinks about how Pogo must have known the content of the cassette tapes. His chest feels tight at the knowledge. 

He's always known exactly where Pogos loyalties lay. But to have it confirmed like this? It's a slap in the face. 

From all the way up in the attic, the three siblings hear a distressed scream. Five blinks downstairs before Luther or Vanya can even begin to wonder at where the noise came from. 

*********************************************

At Graces charging station, where Five had left her that morning, to complete her reboot, Diego is on the floor, sobbing inconsolably. 

"Diego, what's going on?" Five reaches out for him, alarmed, only for his hand to be knocked aside roughly. 

"What did you do to mom?!" Diego yells frantically, his throat raw, tears streaming down his face. 

"What?" Five comes around on the other side to check on Grace. "Mom?" she's finished rebooting, at long last but isn't moving. 

"Hello. My name is Grace and I am an automated Helper. You may also call me 'Mom'. How can I be of service?" she turns her head and smiles a terribly plastic smile-it makes Fives cheeks hurt just looking at her. 

"What the hell?" Five takes her face in both his hands, equal parts confused and concerned. "I did everything right. Mom, what's going on, are you in there?" 

"Hello. My name is Grace and I am an automated Helper. You may also call me 'Mom'. How can I be of service?" she repeats in that same cookie cutter fashion. 

"Fuck." he curses. 

Diego is still sobbing, clinging helplessly to Graces legs. "You broke her!" he accuses. 

Five gulps. "I'm going to fix her, this is a fluke, Diego. She'll be back to normal soon." he promises. 

Diego bares his teeth at him. "Fuck you! Stay away from her! I'm not letting you touch mom!" He leaps up and throws himself at Five, catching him off guard and knocking him backwards onto the floor. 

Five hits the back of his head on the edge of the chair on his way down but ignores the ache. He raises his forearms to block Diego's onslaught of punches. The hits aren't really landing, with Diego being in the emotional state that he's in, which only frustrates him more. _"You broke mom!"_

Five manages to wrestle himself out from under Diego and grips at both of his hands to keep him from continuing to lash out. "Quit it!" Five yells, holding onto him as he struggles against him, flailing wildly. 

Diego brings a knee upwards and gets Five right on his side. Five gasps out a breath, the air knocked out of his lungs, and he lets go of Diego to wrap his arms around his mid section instinctively. 

Diego realizes what he's done and backs away immediately. "Sh-shit! I didn't m-mean to!" Five's bullet wound is still healing and it shows, by the way he holds himself, inhaling sharply and in pain. 

"Diego," Five tries to straighten out, but finds that it hurts too badly. Instead he leans heavily against the cushioned chair. "I _swear_ I will fix mom. But I need you to calm down and let me do what I need to do." 

Diego shudders out a sob and nods, all his fight seemingly gone. "C-can I stay?" 

Five prefers to work alone and unbothered, but it's clear to anyone who set eyes on the boy that Diego is not in a good place. And so he nods, letting the kid stick around. 

Five sits down, hiding a wince, and begins to run diagnostics on Grace. He did everything right. He's certain of it. He needs to figure out what went wrong and why, and quickly. Grace is an important ally to Five, he needs her with him. That's what he tells himself, ignoring the little voice in his head that sounds too much like Delores. 

The one that says, _You need your mom, Five._

*********************************

Diego falls asleep on top of Graces lap on the circular couch, about two hours into diagnostics. Five is glad for the silence; he needs to concentrate. He's been pouring over all of his notes like a madman, trying to find the flaw in his work, but so far, has come across nothing. 

There's no reason as to why the reboot he conducted should have completely reset her in this way. It makes no goddamn sense and it's beginning to drive him up a wall. 

Five settles back on the couch, vexed and achy and fatigued altogether. Today has been a day from absolute hell; he doesn't think it could possibly get any worse. 

Which of course, is when Pogo saunters over, quiet as can be. 

Five glares at him. "What?" 

"I'm not here to argue. I simply thought that you might appreciate this..." he reluctantly hands Five a brown, leather bound journal. The writing inside is Reginalds. 

Five skims the first few lines and blinks up at Pogo. "This is..." 

Pogo nods. "Master Hargreeves had a number of fail safes installed, in case of any compromise on Graces hardware. I believe in that journal, you will find what you need in order to finish your repairs without further issue." 

"Another secret you withheld from me." It's not even a question anymore. 

Pogo swallows, hard. "I am not the only one here keeping secrets, now, am I?" 

Five shakes his head. "No, you're not." he says, softly. "I um," he looks down and away. "When I was really young, because you were so nice to me...I uh, I used to pretend you were my real dad, you know? I used to hope." He lets out a humorless chuckle. "How stupid is that?" He clears his throat and opens the journal, refusing to look up, or he would see the devastation on Pogo's face. 

"Goodnight." Five says, a clear dismissal. 

"....Goodnight." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone reading and commenting! it makes my day! :)


	16. Chapter 16

It takes three grueling days of nearly uninterrupted work to undue his fathers malware on Grace. Diego barely leaves Fives side for the duration of that time, watching over him with a critical eye. 

Luther and Vanya take turns bringing the both of them food, with Allison and Klaus occasionally stopping by to check in on Fives progress. 

"In about eight hours we'll know if I've managed to get everything back into working order." Five announces definitively. He's exhausted, a sharp ache in his head making his left eye throb. 

Diego and Allison, who are seated on the floor playing cards, look up. Diego looks skeptical at best, but also hopeful. "She'll be back to normal?" 

Five nods. "Better than normal-she'll be fully autonomous."

Diego tilts his head. "What does that mean?" 

Allison answers for him. "That means she'll have free will. Which, historically, in novels at least, is a not so smart thing to do. But I trust Five has a plan B for if mom decides to go full terminator on us." she teases. 

Diego balks at her. "Mom wouldn't do that!" 

Allison places down a draw four card and sticks her tongue out at him. "Sure. She'll probably decide to stop cleaning your gross underwear, though, now that she'll have that choice." 

Diego puts down his own draw four card, smirking at the look on her face. As an argument between the siblings commences, Five interrupts. 

"I'm gonna' go and take a nap. If anything happens while I'm asleep just holler for me, yeah?" Five closes the panel on Graces wrist, satisfied with the completion of the task. He blinks away, to his room after the children nod in acknowledgement. 

Allison draws eight cards, but her mind is no longer on the game. "I can't believe he's voluntarily choosing to go to sleep." 

Diego plays a blue number four. "He's been working nonstop trying to fix mom." he shrugs. "I don't think he's taken a break to actually sleep these past three days-I'd fall asleep while he was in the middle of something and wake up hours later to him in the same position. I'm not surprised he decided to take a break." 

Allison sighs. "Dad is so reckless." 

"What?" Diego looks up at her sharply. 

Allison blinks at him. "Don't look at me like that, you know I'm right. Five's been running on fumes since he got shot." 

"You um," Diego pauses, twisting his lips downward. "You said 'dad'. You called Five 'dad'." 

Allison shakes her head. "No I didn't." 

"No, you totally did." Diego snickers. "Allison, your daddy issues are showing-I thought Luther was bad, but dang." 

Allisons face goes red with embarrassment. "Whatever, my issues-which I don't have, by the way-would never rival your mamma's boy issues and you know it." 

"Sure, whatever you say, daddy's girl." He puts down a draw two card, grinning. 

Allison is tempted to rumor him into punching himself in his stupid face, but by the glory of god, holds herself back. 

The stairs creak around the corner and the two of them look to see who it is, only to find Pogo standing there, looking both concerned and ashamed. "Children." he greets them. 

Allison chooses to ignore him completely, drawing two cards. "Your turn." she says. 

Diego, however, is livid. "Fuck off." 

"Oh my God." Allison palms her forehead in exasperation. "Diego, leave it, there's no point." 

Diego doesn't listen, turning to face Pogo fully. "What the hell do you want?" 

"I wanted to inquire as to the progress Five has made, that was all." 

"Why do you even care?" Diego spits out. 

Pogo looks away. "Long before you seven came along, Grace and I were quite close." 

Allison tilts her head. "But...dad didn't invent Grace until we were toddlers. You're the one who took care of us primarily, up until then. Unless I'm remembering wrong?" There are, after all, a lot of things in her very early childhood she's worked very hard to forget. 

"It's a rather long story." 

Diego scoffs. "Whatever, I'm tired of all you adults and your bull shit 'long stories'." he stands up and walks away, pushing past Pogo on his way to the stairs. 

Allison sighs. "Five finished a little bit ago. He said it should be about eight hours before we know if whatever he did actually worked." 

Pogo nods. "Thank you. I appreciate the candor." 

"Would be nice if it could go both ways." Allison gathers the cards on the floor back into it's plastic container. She looks at him and frowns. "Do you really owe Reginald that much?" 

Pogo hesitates to speak. "I owe him _everything_." 

"So, did we really mean so little to you, then?" Allison doesn't know why she's asking, when in reality, she'd rather not know the answer. 

"You children mean the world to me." Pogo frowns. "I did what I thought was best at the time-what was safest, for everyone's sake. I..." He looks away, eyes dark. "I should have done more. I am sorry." 

Allison swallows back all of her emotion. "It's kind of late for apologies, don'tcha think?" She curls up next to Grace and tucks her face into the androids shoulder, hoping it's enough to convey her message. 

Pogo respects her wishes to be left alone and retreats back to his room after a moment or two. 

********************************

"Hey Fivey, Vanny and I wanted to-" Klaus stops at the door. "Oh shit, sorry, didn't know you were trying to sleep." 

Five tries to rub the sleep from his eyes, leaning up on his elbow. "Everything ok?" He yawns, cracking his jaw. It's only been ten minutes since he decided to give into his body's need for sleep, and unless anyone is at the brink of death, he would very much like to get back to it. 

"It can wait." Klaus shrugs nonchalantly. 

Five raises a brow. "Can it, really?" He doesn't know if he can trust the cavalier attitude. Not from Klaus, who tries his damnest not to take things seriously. 

"Well, I mean," Klaus begins. "It's my turn to cook dinner for everyone, as you know." 

Five sits up. "Out with it." 

"Vanny tried to help." He says. 

Five sighs. This is like pulling teeth. "Klaus. What. Is. It." 

Klaus throws his hands up in the air. "Ugh, ok, well, it's just like, a _little itty bitty_ fire. But that's what kitchens are for, right? Should we call 9-1-1? Ooh, or the fire department. Get some eye candy in here." 

Five's eyes go comically wide. "Jesus fucking Christ." he blinks into the kitchen, without waiting for anymore of Klaus incoherent rambling. Vanya is in there literally fanning the flames, instead of actually putting them out. The oven is smoking and the sink of all things is on _fire_. 

"Move." He pushes Vanya out of harms way and manages to turn the water on in the sink to diminish the blaze. He turns on the fan, at the top of the stove and opens the oven wide, letting out a giant cloud of black smoke. He accidentally inhales some of it and coughs violently before grabbing a dish rag on the counter and hastily removing the pan of crispy burnt mac and cheese out of there and tossing it directly into the sink. 

It sizzles and crackles but eventually the fire dies out entirely. 

By then, Klaus has entered the kitchen, with Luther in tow. "What happened?" he asks, "Was that supposed to be dinner?" he looks incredulously at Klaus, who looks away sheepishly. 

"Ok so I maybe caused a baby fire in here, but hey, no harm no foul, right?" 

Vanya's knees feel weak, and she takes a seat at the table, sighing in relief. "I wouldn't really call that a baby fire..." the flames had been so big she'd been afraid to turn the sink on, for fear of burning her hand. 

Five swivels around after turning off the oven and slamming it shut, incredulous. " _How_?!" 

Luther takes a peak into the sink. "Yeah, seriously. How do you mess up mac and cheese so bad?" 

"I got distracted!" Klaus huffs. "I was gonna make a box of Kraft mac and cheese so I turned on the stove burners to boil some water but then I was like nah, let's do some homemade mac and cheese, it'll taste way better, and-" 

"So you set the entire kitchen on fire?" Five coughs out, wincing at the tightness in his chest. 

"Yes." Klaus cops. "But completely by accident, I'm not a secret arsonist, I promise I don't wanna watch the world burn." 

Luther gives him a deadpan look. "I vote we don't let Klaus in the kitchen anymore." 

Vanya raises her hand. "Seconded." 

Klaus turns to her, dismayed. "Et tu Vanny?" 

Vanya shrugs helplessly. "You set the sink on fire. I still can't wrap my head around how..." 

"I'll take him off the cooking chore chart tomorrow." Five agrees, drained of all energy now that the adrenaline has worn off. He coughs into the his forearm and leans back against the counter for support. 

"You ok?" Luther worries. Each cough has been worse than the last, this last bout particularly harsh. 

Five nods, but the coughs, which keep coming, rougher than before, tell a different story. "M'fine." he bends over and wheezes, attempting to catch his breath. It feels like he's about to cough up a damn lung. 

"Aw shit," Klaus gasps. " _Asthma_!" he exclaims. 

The others stare at him in confusion. 

"Five has asthma, he told me last week. Shit, is this an asthma attack? You took in so much smoke." 

"Asthma?" Luther can't remember Five having asthma a year ago. 

Vanya stands up and starts running for the infirmary. "I think we keep some inhalers stocked!" She calls out, hurrying. 

Fives face has gone pale and sweaty, his hair sticking to his forehead. His chest is so tight, it's as if he's sucking in air through a coffee stirrer. Luther helps him to the table, Klaus pushing a chair under him. Five unbuttons the top two buttons on his collared shirt but it doesn't help any. 

"Does water help or will he choke?!" Klaus asks frantically. 

Luther shakes his head. "How the heck am I supposed to know?!" 

While the two argue back and forth senselessly Vanya pushes past the two of them and tilts her brothers head up, inserting the end of the pump into his mouth and telling him to swallow the medicine when she presses down on the pump. 

It only takes a couple of pumps before Five can feel the albuterol doing its job. He gasps raggedly, chest heaving. " _Fuck_." It was stupid and careless of him to act so rashly, knowing an asthma attack could occur in consequence. 

But protecting his family has always been a first priority-damned be all the rest-even if he can't admit it out loud to himself. 

Klaus apologizes profusely, guilt eating away at him. "I'm so so sorry, I really didn't mean to cause a fire and almost kill you." 

Five takes the inhaler from Vanya and takes another puff for good measure. "I know you didn't do it on purpose. But you're still banned from the kitchen for the rest of your life, Klaus." he huffs, rubbing at his aching chest. 

"Your hand." Vanya gently grabs hold of it when she notices. 

Luther winces in sympathy when he sees the inflamed, burnt skin around Fives thumb and wrist. "I'll get mom-I mean, I'll be right back, I'm gonna get some neosporin from the first aid kit." 

Five lets her inspect the burn. It stings like hell, but he's had far worse and a high tolerance for pain. 

"Oh my God, I torched the kitchen _and_ Daddy Five!" Klaus bemoans. 

Five rolls his eyes. "Barely." 

Luther returns a couple of moments later with the whole kit in hand and places it on the table next to Five before opening the case. "Shouldn't we put ice or something on it, first?" Klaus asks, and then pauses, as if listening to someone speak and says, "Oh, I mean, some cool water. It will help to cool it before we put ointment on the burn." he rectifies. 

Vanya nods. "That sounds right." 

They usher Five-who does not enjoy the ushering-over to the charred sink and turn the faucet so that it's at just the right temperature before Five can put his hand under the running stream. He flinches at the contact but lets the water work its magic, cooling the heated skin around his thumb. 

Luther holds his arm still while Vanya applies the ointment as carefully as she can, and Klaus wraps sterile gauze around the injury. 

Five wants to complain that he doesn't need all of this ridiculous coddling; he's a grown man, for shit's sake. But he can't deny the fact that the obvious concern for his well being over something so silly is...well, nice. Five isn't used to knowing he's cared for, even if clumsily. He swallows down the lump in his throat and tells himself it's the lack of sleep that's making him so soft. 

"Thank you." He yawns into the crook of his elbow, his eyelids already beginning to droop. When he stands up to head back to his room his legs give out from under him and he ends up in Luther's arms, blinking blearily up at him in surprise. 

"Whoa!" Luther lifts him up as though he weighed as much as a feather-which isn't too far from the truth-bridal style. 

Five tries to wriggle out of his arms, but he's just so tired. "Put me down." he complains grumpily, even as his head flops down to land on Luther's shoulder and his eyes close involuntarily. "M'fine." he mumbles, already half asleep. 

Klaus pets him on the head affectionately. "Sure ya' are, Fivey. Alright big guy, let's get this old man to bed, shall we?" He leads the way for Luther and they slowly make their way upstairs. 

*****************************************

Vanya stays behind to clean up the kitchen. It's an awful mess, but somebody's gotta do it, she thinks, resigned to the task. 

She puts the first aid kit away first, since it's the easiest thing to do and comes back to throw away the fried pan of mac and cheese afterward, using the rag Five had used to remove it from the oven earlier. With the kitchen in ruins, they might have to order take out tonight. 

A spike of pain strikes in her head and she drops the garbage bag she's holding back into the bin. "Ow." she rubs at the spot in vain. Five lowered her dose again last night. She's gone from her initial eighty milligrams a day to sixty in the two weeks since discovering Reginald had been force feeding her the pills without a valid reason. 

It's still a high dose, but she can already feel the effects of withdrawal starting to kick in. She's just glad it's nothing more severe than a headache, for now. It's not painful in a paralyzing way, but it is irritating. Vanya goes back for the first aid kit and digs out a bottle of Advil. 

She struggles with the safety cap, growing more and more peeved by the second, as her headache intensifies. "Come on." she mutters, pushing down on the top and twisting fruitlessly. " _Ugh, just open already!_ " 

The set of lights above the bathroom mirror crack, burning out and leaving her in the dark. "What the hell..." she blinks, trying to adjust her eyes. Blindly, she reaches out for the light switch. She clicks it off and on again but nothing happens. 

Not one fond of the dark, Vanya scuttles out of the bathroom and into the hallway, where she finally uncaps the bottle. She shakes out a couple of pills and dry swallows them, hoping they will alleviate her headache sooner, rather than later. 

She looks into the bathroom now that light from the hall is shining into it and notices the thin cracks across the row of round light bulbs. "Huh." Vanya frowns. 

How odd. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope u guys enjoyed Klaus' magnificent culinary skills ! 
> 
> @every single comment: thank u for the serotonin, i owe u all my first born <3
> 
> @everyone reading/leaving kudos: thank you for the support! :)


	17. Chapter 17

Five more hours. 

Diego sighs. This reboot is taking forever and a day. He's been trying to find random things to do since leaving Grace and Allison, hoping to make time pass more quickly but so far it's only dragging on. 

He throws his knife, hitting the mark dead center from all the way across the court yard and sighs again. Diego hates waiting, has never had the patience for it, and though he's well aware that Five is resting-and quite frankly, needs to be-that doesn't stop him from stomping into his room and slamming open the door. 

He doesn't mean to slam it as hard as he does, and guilt instantly floods him when Five jumps up in bed, his hair a tangled mess going in all directions, startled but alert. He still looks exhausted. 

"Diego, what's wrong?" He runs his bandaged hand through his hair in a failed attempt to tame his locks. 

"Mom still isn't awake." 

Five checks the time on the alarm clock on his nightstand and frowns. "It hasn't been eight hours yet." 

Diego groans, stomping his feet. "It's taking too long." 

Luther, who's passing by in the hallway, scoffs. "You're such a mamma's boy. Give it a rest, already. Let Five sleep." 

"You can't say shit, daddy's boy." Diego retorts angrily. 

Five yawns. He should do something now, before the inevitable fist fight begins, but he's so tired that his fried brain can't come up with anything better than: "If you let me sleep for like two more hours I'll take you delinquents wherever you want." And then he throws his covers over his head and passes out again. 

**********************************

They let him sleep for one hour and fifty nine minutes before he's rudely awoken by Klaus, who throws himself across Five on his bed. "Wakey wakey! It's tiiiiime!" 

Five whines. "What?" 

Allison pops up from the side of the bed and uncovers his face. She's grinning widely. "You said you'd take us anywhere we wanted. Let's go." 

"Did I?" 

Diego and Luther, who stand side by side by the entryway nod simultaneously. "We've had a couple of hours to discuss it with everyone," Luther begins, ever the leader. "And we've decided on Dave and Busters." 

Five stares blankly at him. "What's that?" 

"It's this cool place with food and games and I heard you can get tickets by winning the games and then you can trade em in for prizes!" Diego explains. "They opened a location close by like six months ago. We kept getting flyers in the mail." 

Five hasn't seen the light in Diego's eyes shine quite so bright since finding Pogo's hiding spot for all of their father's fucked up childhood home movies. Even though he'd like to get an extra twelve hours of completely uninterrupted sleep, Five can tell his siblings desperately need this outing. And well, he did promise. 

Sighing, he gets up, pushing Klaus off of him and off the side of his bed without any remorse. "Alright, give me a few minutes to change, meet downstairs in fifteen or I'm leaving without you." 

The children all scurry like ants, running into each other in on their way out of his room. As soon as the last one leaves, Five throws his covers over himself again and drifts off. Just a few more minutes, he thinks. 

***********************

Dave and Busters is....something. 

Five hates the random colorful lighting and the fact that it coexists with the ever present dimness. He hates the screaming children running about the place, totally unsupervised. He hates the ear splitting cacophony and the flashing lights coming from the games. 

The place reminds him of a casino. Except that kids are allowed. Which is exponentially worse. 

He buys an exorbitant amount of chips for everyone and hands each child a thing called a 'power card'. "Do you guys want to eat first or-" 

Diego and Luther run off to shoot hoops at the baskets before Five can even finish his sentence. Allison is drawn to a game with plastic guns called Space Invaders and Klaus follows her lead, grabbing the other one and swiping his card. "Let's kick some alien ass!" 

Five sighs. Vanya is still stood beside him. "I could eat." she says.   
Five nods, spotting somewhere they can order food from across the room. "Booth or bar?"   
"Bar, I guess, since it's just the two of us." 

Vanya orders spicy wings and french fries with a chocolate milkshake, and Five orders a very fruity, very flashy looking lime green margarita the size of his head. 

"You're not gonna eat?" she asks. He can tell she's picturing that stupid tape, and it makes him highly uncomfortable. 

He calls the bartender back over. "On second thought, let me also get an order of mozzarella sticks, thanks." Five turns to her. "Happy?" 

Vanya rolls her eyes, "Ecstatic." 

Five grins a little at the uncharacteristic show of attitude from his sister. "Sarcasm fits you." he comments idly, as he sips on his flamingo pink bendy straw. 

Vanya grins back, a small grin. "Hey so, is that thing good?" she gestures towards his drink, curious. 

Five hums, taking another big sip. "Tastes like skittles." 

"Can I try some?" 

"Yeah," Five replies. "When you're twenty one." 

Vanya sighs. "You're no fun." 

"Speaking of no fun, why are you over here with me and not uh, I don't know, throwing balls into a hole, or whatever that game is over there." 

"Klaus burnt dinner." she shrugs. "I was hungry." 

"None of you ate dinner?" He figured they would have ordered take out with the emergency credit card he left for them. 

"Diego was practicing knife throwing in the court yard-I don't know if he ate. Everyone else made sandwiches but I wasn't hungry earlier." Her headache had taken away her appetite. Thankfully it's gone now, and she's ravenous. 

When the food finally arrives she devours it in record time. Five forces himself to eat a couple of mozzarella sticks and shoves the rest onto Vanya's plate, mainly focusing on his drink. It's very sugary-he can barely taste the tequila-it's great. 

He ends up ordering a second one and dragging Vanya over to the game he'd pointed out before, which, he learns, is called ski ball. Allison and Luther are competing against one another, trying to see who can get the most tickets out of the machines. 

"Room for two more?" 

Allison easily tosses her ball straight into one of the 100 point holes and throws her hair back cockily. "Vanya, you're on my team. Five, you can be on the losers-I mean, Luther's team." 

Luther makes an indignant noise, "We're neck and neck!" 

"Ya'll are gonna lose." Five bumps his shoulder against Luther's in camaraderie and swipes his card. "Time to eat your words little girl." 

"You're on, old man." Allison smirks. 

For all his big talk, Five does not, in fact, come out on top. He blames it on that second margarita-he downs it like juice and unwisely orders a third, and though he and Luther lose horribly, it's a good time. 

Their group finds Klaus and Diego playing Pac Man on a gigantic double screen and though there aren't enough rows of the game for them to play at the same time, they all decide to take turns, cheering each other on and screaming obscenities when the ghosts eat them. 

They eventually move onto Galaxy Collision, a four player air hockey table. Five and Klaus let the rest of their siblings play the first round, claiming to play the last two standing, and in the meanwhile, they head over to the bar to order food. 

Mostly appetizers, since everyone is starting to get peckish. 

They spend another twenty minutes yelling chaotically over air hockey until their waitress announces their table is ready. They get a long booth they all have to slide into because they're such a large group, but they're all having such a good time not a single person complains about having to sit in the middle. 

Appetizers include nachos, a side of guacamole, pretzel dogs, french fries, sliders, and wings. Watching the Hargreeves eat is a mixture of beauty and horror, and the wait staff stare in bewilderment as the children absolutely _demolish_ the bounty of food on their table within minutes. 

Five, now on drink number four, realizes only when he gets up to go to the restroom and has to keep from toppling sideways, that he may or may not be just a tiny bit tipsy. 

Ok, drunk. 

It's been a minute since Five got well and truly intoxicated-and it's probably the first time in his not so long life that he's gotten drunk while enjoying himself, instead of drinking to drown out his miseries. 

After eating entirely too much food in too short a time, though gorged and tired, they decide to play a couple of more games before counting and trading their tickets in at the prize store. 

It's at times like this Five is grateful to the old bastard for having left him his near unfathomably unending wealth, he thinks. Because he's pretty sure that just on this outing alone he spent at least half a grand on everything. And on top of that he's going to have to pay for a taxi because there's no way in hell he's driving them home in his state. 

He briefly considers teleporting them all home instead, at the very end of the night, when they're all tuckered out and looking just about ready to drop, but it's hard enough to blink while sober some days. He's not risking their safety for the sake of convenience. 

******************************

"That was so cool!" Klaus throws the super bounce ball he got from the prize selection at Dave and Busters against the wall when they get home, and watches with unfettered glee as it hits Luther on the head. 

Luther's in too good of a mood to get too mad, though he does fling it back, playfully aiming for Klaus, who yips and narrowly avoids getting his teeth knocked out. 

Diego yawns loudly. "Yeah, it was awesome," he agrees. "I wanna' go again soon." 

The others agree. Diego's yawn starts a chain reaction and by the time they're upstairs all of them are yawning and rubbing at their eyelids sleepily. 

"Alright," Five waves them off. "Bedtime. Go on." 

"Aw, you're not gonna' read us a bedtime story, Daddy Five?" Klaus teases. 

Five rolls his eyes. "Once upon a time a handsome, genius, time traveler took pity and adopted a bunch of ugly little ducklings who didn't talk back and went to bed without sassing him. The end." 

"Hey, we're _cute_ ducklings!" Klaus crows with the others piping up in confirmation behind him. 

"Sure you are." Five ushers them all to their rooms to sleep, equal parts exhausted and drunk, and ready to knock out himself. 

Diego lingers after everyone has gone to bed. "Can we go see mom?" 

Five would rather wait til morning, given the long day he's had, but he can see the anxiety rising up in Diego again. "Yeah, come on, she should be ready to wake up by now." 

Grace is at her charging station and the re-reboot is finished at last. Five disconnects a couple of wires and opens the panel on her wrist to activate her. He's surprised by how on edge he is about the whole thing; what if he screwed up a second time? He'd been so sure, the first time, that he'd done everything right. If he fucks up now he doubts Diego will ever trust him again. 

Praying he got it right for sure, Five holds his breath in wait. Her eyelids flutter open and she blinks a few times, as though readjusting her sights. 

" _Mom_?" Diego gulps nervously. Will she recognize her own son? 

Grace smiles at him, pleasantly. "Diego. It is good to be back. How long was I out of commission for?" she reaches out to wipe a stain from the corner of his bottom lip and doesn't have time to react when Diego throws himself at her, collapsing with relief into her arms. 

"You're back!" he lets out a stuttered breath. "I missed you so much." 

Grace wraps her arms around him and pulls him in close. "I have missed you, too. Everything is alright, no need to fret. I'm here." 

She consoles Diego in a way Five doesn't think he's ever going to be capable of doing, and maybe it's the tequila doing all the talking, but a peculiar feeling of something akin to jealousy hits him deep in the pit of his belly. 

  
He hates it. 

  
He's not sure what he's envious of more. Graces ability to comfort so easily, the warmth that she-a mere android-exudes, when he could never. Or Diego and the unabashed, open love he can display for their mother, when all Five can feel is guilt and shame over such wants. 

"I'll run diagnostics in the morning." He mutters, before blinking away and leaving the two to their private moment alone. 

***************************

He ends up, after hours, in the department store shopping mall Delores calls home. It's late and dark and the guards are bullshitting in the camera room, for which Five is glad. 

He sits down on the stand and leans next to her, his head resting against her leg. She's wearing a floral yellow dress tonight. "You look nice." he says. He wraps his arms around her smooth sleek leg and sighs. "I should be home, running diagnostics right now. I shouldn't have left the kids alone with Pogo." he hates that he can't trust the primate anymore-he never really has, but now the distrust between them is so much more blatant and undeniable. 

"I'm drunk." he admits to Delores. "I know, I know," he sighs a second time. _This_ old argument again. "It's different. I didn't drink to forget." he presses the side of his face closer to her leg, letting the groove make a temporary imprint. "The Handler is back." he's well aware of Delores' disdain for his old commanding officer. 

"She's been too quiet. It scares me." He glares up at Delores. "Of course I know that, you don't think that possibility isn't running through my head like a goddamn hamster on a wheel twenty four seven? I just...I need to be more vigilant. More careful. But she's always been at least one step ahead of me. Her _and_ the Commission." 

Five shakes his head. "Sorry, this is the second time I've come to you to whine and burden you with my problems." he grimaces and rubs his bandaged hand against his chest. "I'm sorry I do that. I don't have anyone else I can talk to..." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ily all <3 thanku for reading/commenting D: !!!!


	18. Chapter 18

Five wakes up the next morning with a terrible hangover. 

He also wakes up next to a very familiar pair of legs. " _What the fuck._ " He sits up, untangling himself from his sheets and stares at the bottom half of the mannequin that he apparently stole from the department store last night in a drunken stupor and had the audacity to bring home with him. 

"Oh fuck-what the fuck." He didn't even steal the right fucking half. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Delores is probably so _pissed_. "Aw fuck." Five smacks himself on the forehead. How could he be so reckless? 

And how in the actual hell is he supposed to hide the lower half of Delores from his nosey siblings before he has a chance to sneak back into the mall tonight to return it? 

He groans pitifully. 

And on top of this new dilemma he has to run diagnostics on Grace, which is going to take up the majority of his day. " _Fuck_!" 

A knock at his door has Five practically falling out of bed in his haste to hide Delores' legs. Will they fit in his closet? 

"Five?" It's Vanya. The only one of his siblings who actually knows the etiquette of knocking, thank what few lucky stars he has. 

"Shit," he mutters to himself, and then, out loud. "Getting dressed, give me a minute!" He grabs the legs and shoves them unceremoniously into his closet, saying a quiet sorry to Delores, and quickly changes out of his clothes from the night before into a clean white dress shirt and a pair of khakis. 

"You can come in." He tries his best to look super casual and not like he has just hidden away the bottom half of his apocalypse companion somewhere in the room.

Vanya gives him a funny look, making him thinks he's missed 'casual' by about a mile, but doesn't comment. "I'm just here for my pill." she says, holding out her hand. 

"Right." Five digs into his cabinet drawer where he keeps the stash and in his haste ends up handing Vanya a twenty milligram tablet, instead of the forty one she normally takes in the mornings-they looks identical, after all, and so neither of them realize his mistake. 

"Thanks." She takes the pill, gulping it down with the bottled water in her other hand and then looks at him again. "Hey, are you ok?" He looks...nervous. Which is unusual for her big brother. 

"What?" Five blinks up at her, eyes darting this and that way shiftily. "Uh, yeah, yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be?" Did she hear any of his earlier commotion? Was he not as silent as he thought he'd been? Shit. 

She shrugs. "No reason, I guess. Are you joining us for breakfast? Luther's making pancakes, using what's left of the kitchen." 

Five shakes his head. "I have a few things to do, I'll eat lunch with you guys later though." 

"Ok." 

As soon as she leaves the room, door closing behind her, he locks it and lets out a relieved sigh. That was way too close. No more tequila. Ever. 

Hesitantly, he opens his closet door. The bottom half of Delores is somehow just as judgmental as her top half, if not more so. 

He stares at the silicone legs and prays to a God he's never quite believed in that none of the children stumble across her in the course of the day. He just needs until tonight, and then he can blink back into the department store and return what he's taken. Five is not looking forward to that particular confrontation with Delores. 

Her 'I told you so' face is the worst. 

****************************

Grace lets him run diagnostics in peace for all of two minutes before asking him why he's not at the breakfast table with the rest of his siblings. 

Five sighs. "This is more important. Plus, I'm not hungry. I'll eat later." 

"You look upset." she notes. "Would you care to talk about it?" 

"It's nothing." 

Grace hums. "These new parameters you have set for me are...interesting." 

Five looks up at her, curious. "How so?" 

"You've given me full autonomy." Grace tilts her head at him. "You're not afraid of me now? Your father would flip over in his grave if he knew what you've done." 

"I trust you. I always have." Five shrugs. "Maybe it's a childish, naïve trust. But you were the one who would sneak food into my room late at night when dad had me fasting for too long. You patched me up after every mission gone awry. And you never got mad at me for crying, I-" Five stops himself, clearing his throat, embarrassed for admitting so much of his love out loud. 

He shakes his head. "Anyway, I'm well aware of the amount of free will I gave you, but to answer your question: no, I'm not afraid of you. You could probably hold a knife up to my throat and I'd trust you not to slice hard enough to puncture through my carotid artery." 

Grace makes a face, but does smile. "You and your way with words." 

Five smiles too, ducking his head to hide it as he continues to run diagnostics, in order to check for any virus or malware he may have missed the first two times around. He wants to be one hundred percent sure he's gotten everything right and that she won't be malfunctioning again anytime soon. It'll take hours to run diagnostics on her entire system, all day probably. 

"Am I allowed to wear trousers?" 

The question gives Five pause. "What? I-I mean, yeah, I guess? You can do as you please, so I suppose that does include what you choose to wear." he gives her a funny look. "You weren't allowed to wear pants before?" Now that he thinks back to his childhood Grace was always in a pastel colored, puffed up dress with an apron around her waist and sensibly high heeled shoes. He hadn't given it too much thought, really. 

Grace shakes her head. "No. But I think I would like to try on a pair. When I go out for groceries I often get strange looks. I believe it is due to my old fashioned attire. It does not particularly bother me, but I would be eight point twenty six percent more efficient when grocery shopping for everyone if I were less of a distraction in public." 

Five doesn't have the heart to tell her that the dress is probably only about a third of the reason people stop and stare at her. Grace is gorgeous-of course she 'distracts' the public. 

"Well, we can always go shopping, if you'd like. I think another outing to the mall would be good for the kids, anyway." He knows they're technically still grounded-hell, he'd known last night when he took them out to a literal arcade bar-but they've been cooped up inside their whole lives (except for missions, which Five does not count in the least). 

Grace nods. "I would like that very much. I've never been to the mall before." she reminds Five a little of the kids when he took them to the mall for the first time. There's a sort of glee there that she can't quite hide from him. "I look forward to it." 

"Me too." 

Five works in silence for another few minutes before Grace breaks it, leaning in so close to him that he feels cross eyed just looking at her. She squints her eyes at him. "It's going to bother me all day if you don't tell me why the glum face. Just so you know." 

Five scrunches up his nose and tilts himself, scooching back a few inches. "Mom, way too close." 

Grace looks surprised at herself. "I apologize. I am still getting used to the new parameters you've set for my programing." 

Five waves away the apology. "It's fine, I'm sure you'll get a hang of it soon enough." 

Grace nods. "You're avoiding my query. Again."

He can't tell her about the fucking mannequin legs hiding in his closet. Now that she has free will, she might just decide to have him committed-which, he wouldn't blame her for, really. He takes a deep breath. "I miss Delores." A half truth. That's a good compromise, Five decides. "I got too drunk last night and uh, I couldn't get her out of my head. I still can't." 

"Ah," Grace frowns sympathetically. "I see. This Delores. She was your significant other, from the future, if I understand correctly?" 

Five nods reluctantly. She was more than significant. Delores was his sanity. "She was all I had for a long time." he admits. 

"I am sorry for your loss." She places a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezes. "But I would like to instill in you this: you have us now, Five. We are yours as you are ours. You are not alone." 

Five gulps hard, his head going down, hyper focusing on the diagnostics reading at hand. There's a lump in his throat preventing him from saying a single word in response. 

Grace lets him be for the moment, the silence stretching out over time. 

"I wanted to ask you, before," Five looks up finally, a long while later. "About Vanya." 

Grace blinks, assessing her programing and noting with pleasant surprise that there are no parameters to block her from saying as she pleases. "Yes. Her medicine. What would you like to know?" 

"Dad was bribing her psychiatrist, the therapist, and probably even the pharmacy, too, to look the other way and prescribe her that drug-an obscene amount, especially for a child," Five frowns. "I want to know for what purpose. Vanya, as far as I can tell, doesn't need to be medicated." 

"You were too young to recall," Grace begins, her face serious. "But at the age of four, Vanya-" The android pauses mid sentence and the tablet with the wire running to the panel inside of her wrist alerts Five that they've arrived to the point in diagnostics where Grace must be shut off and restarted to ensure proper function. 

"Shit." Five curses. He thought he had more time. He should have brought up the Vanya situation earlier. "Damn it." He needs to get his shit together and stop dawdling in his own silly emotions or he's never going to get anywhere. He's close to figuring out what it is that causes the apocalypse. He can feel it. 

"Is mom ok? Why isn't she moving?" Klaus hangs by the top of the steps, uncharacteristically shy. 

Five nods. "She's fine. Just doing a routine diagnostics test. Might take a while. What's up?" 

"Allison made sandwiches for lunch-she said if she doesn't see your skinny ass down there in like, the next five minutes, it's grass." Klaus shrugs. "Her words, not mine." 

He doesn't really need to be here now that Graces' systems are restarting, since the process occurs naturally after the reprogramming and will only stop if it detects a virus. Which, hopefully, doesn't happen. Five wants to be more confident in his own abilities, but after the last time, he's not quite so sure. 

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." 

***************************

Shortly after lunch Five decides to help the children with some one on one practice. He can tell Luther and Diego are the two most excited for it. 

Vanya excuses herself almost immediately, to play her violin, and Klaus doesn't even bother with an excuse, prancing off without looking back once. 

Allison, he can tell, is a mixture of anticipation and nerves. 

If Pogo was on his side, and if Grace was fully operational and without any bugs, this would be a lot easier, Five thinks. In the end he has them draw sticks to see who will get his attention first, since that's the only fair way to really decide. 

Diego gets the first block of hour and out of Allison and Luther, Luther ends up getting the second block, and so Allison is left with the last. 

"You two can go do your chores or have free time in the meanwhile." Five tells them. "Luther, in an hour, meet me in the court yard and we'll start your one on one, ok?" 

Luther nods dutifully, and it makes Five a little uncomfortable, how ready the kid is to enter into servitude, but he shakes the feeling off. He's not like Reginald. The purpose of this isn't to train the children into battle hardened soldiers, but to help them practice their powers so they don't end up hurting themselves or others in the long run. 

Diego, for all of his initial enthusiasm, turns timid once they're all alone. 

"There's a lot more you can do with your powers that you probably haven't even had the chance to realize yet." Five starts. "You can control the kinetic energy around projectiles-which is how you're able to 'dodge' bullets so easily." 

Diego tilts his head. "What does that mean?" 

"In laymen terms, it's the energy of mass in motion." Five takes out a hackey sack from his back pocket and bounces it up in the air. "For example," he tosses it toward Diego, who catches it mid air easily. "That ball was moving, the ball is the mass, and it moving means it was in motion-the force of energy around that ball? You have the ability to control it." He gestures towards it. "Give it here." 

Diego throws it back and Five catches it. 

"I'm gonna' toss this at you. Instead of catching it with your hands, I want you to try to stop it from coming within hmm, let's say, about a foot from you?" 

Diego shakes his head. "What do you mean stop it? I can only dodge bullets-you know, _metal_ objects? That's a hackey sack. It's not gonna work." 

Five shrugs. "Won't know 'til we try." He blinks over to the end of the court yard, several feet away, and throws the ball. 

Diego dodges it reflexively. He curses when he realizes what he's just done. "Shit, shit, I'm sorry, I-" 

Five blinks back over to him. "Hey," he bends down and hooks a finger under his chin to get him to look up at him. "Don't apologize. You're learning. It's ok to make mistakes. I'm not going to get mad at you Diego, I promise. Do you want to keep trying? You don't have to, we can continue tomorrow or whenever you prefer." 

Diego gulps. "You're really not mad?" He looks at him for reassurance, eyes wide and a little afraid. 

Five hates the expression on his face. He wishes he could dig Reginald out of his shallow grave and get rid of him all over again. "I'm not. I swear." 

"O-ok, then, if it's ok, I want to keep going." Diego says, determined now. 

Five nods, blinking away, this time he's standing above him, on the roof of the house. "Ready?" he calls out. 

Diego nods, stance at the ready. 

Five throws the ball. He can see Diego fight with himself not to move out of the way. Instead Diego fumbles to try and catch it with his hands, unable to stop it from coming towards him. 

He curses again, irritated by his own incompetence. He didn't even manage to catch the dang ball. Five appears before him almost instantly. "That was an improvement." He notes, smiling. 

Diego stares up at him like he's crazy. "What do you mean? I messed up." 

"Not true." Five pokes him on the forehead. "You didn't dodge this time, you went against your usual instincts. That's impressive work. It's only your second attempt on day one, Diego." 

"You really think it was impressive?" Diego asks, skeptical while simultaneously hopeful. 

Five nods decisively. "You remember at the bank, how I got the upper hand on the bad guys but they never once saw me until I wanted them to?" 

Diego is hanging on every single word now. "Yeah?" 

"I only learned how to do that with _practice_. It's harder than it looks." he admits. "The first time I tried I ended up meeting a T-Rex." 

"Dude, what?! You met an actual dinosaur?! You're pulling my leg, there is no way!" Despite the words of denial, Diego looks plenty convinced already. 

Five shrugs nonchalantly. "I have a scar that says otherwise." He lifts his pant leg and from his ankle all the way up to his knee is a thick long white line. 

"Holy shit!" Diego inspects the scar like he's an expert on these things or something. "Ok, ok, I-" he stares up at Five with renewed vigor. "I'm ready, let's go again!" 

And they do, for the next forty five minutes Five teleports from place to place around the court yard, randomly, and sometimes without much warning, throwing Diego the ball over and over again. Every now and again Diego dodges the ball instinctively, but most of the time he does attempt to stop it's motion, though without success. 

At the end of their time, Diego is visibly disappointed, but Five assures him today's practice session went well. "We'll keep at it tomorrow, if you'd like." Five pats him on the shoulder. "You did great today, Diego, seriously." 

"You're not just saying that?" 

Five shakes his head, chuckling lightly. "When have I been known to blow smoke up someone's ass?"

Diego grins.

He can't wait for tomorrow's practice. 

**************************

Vanya watches Five and Luther from the living room window, her violin and bow discarded across the couch. Five is sitting atop of Luther, who's doing push ups with weights attached to his wrists and ankles. 

She can hear their conversation faintly from indoors.

"I'm already super strong." Luther complains. "Why do I need to do this?" 

Five flips the page on the book he's reading. "You gotta' build some muscle kid. Dad only focused on cardio, in order to make you faster, since your power is already super strength, but I think it'd be a good idea to get back to the basics." 

"This is nothing. You weigh like ten pounds." Luther proves this by only doing the push ups by using one arm to lift himself and Five. "This is too easy." 

Five yawns and stretches, making Luther have to adjust to keep him upright on his back. "I'll add more weight tomorrow." 

Luther huffs in exasperation but doesn't complain any further. 

Vanya stares longingly, wishing she could have a turn. Sighing, she picks up her violin and begins to play a melancholic melody. The notes echo against the walls of the manor, almost vibrating. 

In the end, she'll always be the odd one out, she thinks, the notes turning slightly sour. 

*****************************

"I don't want to rumor you." Allison shuffles her feet nervously. 

"That's good, because I don't really want that either," Five nods for her to follow her to where he's set up a table in the court yard with several plastic cups filled to the brim with water. "What I want is for you to rumor one of these cups into spilling its contents." 

Allison blinks. "What? That's," she shakes her head. "That's not how my power works. I can only rumor people. And only if they're within close proximity. I can't rumor a plastic cup. It's impossible. Ridiculous, even." 

"Allison, our entire lives are kind of ridiculous, no?" Five gives her a look. "Have you ever tried to manipulate objects?" 

"I mean, no, but-" Allison shakes her head again. "It's not going to work." 

Five puts on a pair of ear plugs and nods at the cups. "Won't know til you try." 

Allison rolls her eyes, feeling silly. "Fine." she sighs. "I heard a rumor one of these cups tipped over." she watches as absolutely nothing occurs, unimpressed. "See?" 

Five signals for her to try again. 

She does. And again. Nothing. She sighs, frustrated. She motions for Five to take off his ear plugs. When he does, she folds her arms across her chest and frowns. "I'm telling you, it's not possible." 

Five can see that there's no convincing her to try again. She's not nearly as pliant as Diego and not half as blindly obedient as Luther. Perhaps he was too ambitious, starting with something so complicated. "Alright, let's try another activity then. You mentioned proximity earlier. Remind me again, what's the farthest you can be from your target in order for the rumor to still affect them?" 

"About three feet, give or take a couple of inches." Allison shrugs. It's never been particularly ideal, but it's why she used to work so hard at the physical training. 

"Right," Five measures roughly three feet between them and says, "Make me spill the contents of one of these cups on the table." 

"But," Allison hesitates. "The last time I rumored you..." 

"Was without my permission." Five finishes. "I am giving you my consent to rumor me now, this once, during practice. If you don't feel comfortable doing so, I completely understand, we can try something else, ok?" 

Allison shakes her head. "No, I-I wanna' try." 

Five nods. "Go ahead." 

"I heard a rumor you knocked over the cup in the middle of that table." 

On cue, Five turns around and spills the cup onto the ground, water splashing onto the concrete. When he comes to himself he nods again. "Alright, now try again." He takes two steps back. 

"I heard a rumor you knocked over a second cup!" she half yells. 

Five knocks over a second cup. "Good job." He takes two more steps back. "Try now." 

Allison yells a third rumor and this time nothing happens. She sighs. "You're too far." 

Five nods. "I'm almost four feet away now. You managed to rumor me at nearly three and a half feet the last time." 

Allison blinks. "I did? I did!" She hadn't realized how far he'd gotten. "That's my best distance yet!" She smiles broadly. 

"You're doing a really good job. Do you want to keep going? I'll take one step forward and we'll see if you can rumor me, yeah?" 

Allison nods enthusiastically. "Let's do it." 

They spend the next hour practicing, and by the end of it she manages to get him to knock over half the cups, and though she doesn't break four feet, she nearly reaches it. Three feet, ten inches. It's a new personal best. 

*************************

Klaus finds Vanya in the living room playing the violin and lays down on the couch beside her. "That's a really depressing song, Vanny, don't you know something with a little more pep? Maybe something by Britney Spears?" 

Vanya continues to play, only sparing him a brief glance. 

Klaus sighs loudly. "I'm so bored. I have half a blunt in my room, you wanna come smoke with me?" It's nearly night time out now. 

Vanya stops playing and glares at him. "I don't understand you." 

Klaus has never seen his sister look quite this upset before, not with him, at least. "What do you mean?" 

"If you're so bored, why don't you accept Five's invitation to practice your powers? You could do so much with them, but instead you choose to ignore them and hide them away, like it's some kind of a curse. I don't get it." she lashes out. 

Klaus backs away, hurt. "My power sucks, it's like being stuck in a fucking horrible never ending _nightmare_. I'm sorry you were lucky enough to be born ordinary, Vanya, really, so sorry for you, who gets to lead a _normal_ life and never got the shit beat out of you by dear old dad for not wanting to summon fucking ghosts when you were nine." Without waiting for her to reply, Klaus gets up, knocking down a couple of decorative pillows off the couch before running off. 

Vanya stares at the empty space next to her, unsure exactly of what it is she's feeling, only that there's something stirring inside of her, wanting to be let out. She presses a hand against her chest and there's a tingling there that's slowly turning sharp. Not quite a pain. But a sensation she can't put her finger on. 

She brings her violin back up to her chin and begins to play. It's a new song she's been practicing as of late and she can't get the right note to play the way she'd like. 

_Lucky enough to be born ordinary._

Vanya presses the bow against the strings a little too hard. She can feel her pulse quicken and there's a sheen of sweat on her upper lip. Klaus doesn't have any idea what it's like to be her. To be left out every single time, no matter how hard one tries. She can't even excel in the one thing she tries so goddamn hard at, she thinks, as she messes up the same note again. 

"Come on!" Vanya reprimands herself. "Just get this one thing right." 

But again and again, over and over she makes the same mistake. Infuriated by her ineptitude, Vanya tightens her grip at the end of the bow and presses the hair against the strings down so hard that every single string breaks apart in one swift motion. " _Fuck_!" 

In that very same moment, the lights in the living room burst above her, leaving her in total darkness.

That snaps Vanya out of her anger and into a state of confusion. "What the..." 

In the kitchen, she hears Pogo calls out. "Is everyone alright? The lights went out over here!" 

Vanya blinks. "Pogo? They're out over here, too, in the living room!" 

From upstairs they hear Five, who'd been fiddling with some wires in Graces panel, curse loudly. "Is it the fuse box?!" 

The children all come out of their rooms, grappling at the walls and the corners of objects in the way in the darkness. "What's up with the lights?" Allison asks. 

Diego groans. "Five, did you forget to pay the electricity?" 

Five rolls his eyes at nothing. "A. All our bills are set to be automatically paid. B. We have enough money to pay the lights a thousand times over. And C. Shut up. I'm going down to the basement to check the fuse box. Everyone try not to trip down the stairs please." He blinks off, only the blue hue of his power left in his wake. 

Luther stumbles back into his room and comes back with a flashlight. 

Diego snorts. "You just had that in your room? God, you are such a boy scout." 

Luther turns his nose up at his brother. "It's called being prepared, asshole." 

Five appears in front of the trio, annoyed. "Fuse box is fine." He grabs the flashlight from Luther and turns it so that he can see downstairs. "Vee, you alright?" 

Vanya nods, squinting at the light. "Yeah, Pogo's down here with me, too." 

Five nods. "Has anybody seen Klaus?" He hasn't truly considered the fact that this could be The Handlers work at play. Only because if it was, she wouldn't have had the patience to wait this long to make a move on him or any of the children. But it's possible she may have sent an assassin or two from the Temps Commission to fuck with him. 

Vanya gulps. "I think he might have gone out to the court yard for a smoke?" 

In that instant Klaus throws open the back door and bounds inside, "Guys! Have ya'll looked outside?! The entire town just lost power! There was like this giant shock wave and bam! All the lights just went off! Even the street lights! It's fuckin' wild."

Five frowns deeply. "It might be an electrical storm." Though he hadn't seen anything on the news about any such thing... "Pogo, call PSEG please, in the meantime everyone start lighting candles. Luther, any extra flashlights?" 

Luther nods. "I know where we keep a few! I'll be back!" 

Klaus takes out his lighter, plus an extra one in his back pocket and hands that one to Vanya without really looking at her. "Thanks." she mutters. 

Diego looks at Grace, who is still sitting down at her charging station, immobile. "Is mom gonna' be ok?" 

Five nods. "She's alright. Don't worry, I was running diagnostics all day, so she's been charging for hours now, as soon as her systems finish restarting she'll be fully operational, even if we don't get power back for a while. Which, I don't anticipate will be a problem. Black outs aren't uncommon. I'll be right back." 

Without further explanation he blinks away. He reappears atop the roof of their home, at the tip top most part, and sees the extent of the damage. It's pitch black for as far as he can see. No lights anywhere, no street lamps, no store fronts, and worst of all, no traffic lights. He can hear the blaring of car horns from up here. 

There's not a storm cloud in the sky. This was definitely not borne of natural causes. 

"Well, _shit_." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the loooong wait! stupid busy week! i hope you all enjoyed this chapter and thank you so much for reading/the support, it's very much appreciated! <3
> 
> (everyone who's commented/given me serotonin will be getting a random baby in the mail in like 10-15 years, so THANKYOU! lol)


	19. Chapter 19

Because it's the entire town, and not just their neighborhood alone, whose power grid has shut down, Pogo informs Five, after getting off a call, the electric company won't be coming for at least another couple of days. 

"The cold food will last for the night until morning if we keep the refrigerator closed but someone must go and get ice tomorrow morning if we'd like the perishables not to go to waste." 

Five nods. "Right. I'll get on that first thing tomorrow." In the meantime he makes the children (mostly Klaus) promise not to burn the house down accidentally now that the common areas are lit up by candle. 

Thankfully it's late enough in the night that the children all swarm to go to bed, and Five has time to check back in on Grace, who should be finished restarting by now, he hopes. 

Her eyes are blinking open as he steps foot upstairs. No bugs were detected during the diagnostic scan, he notes, sagging momentarily with almost palpable relief. "Mom." he smiles at her once she's fully functional again. 

She frowns, however, after realizing they're in the dark. Grace quickly scours the news internally, "The power grid is down." She states.

Five nods, mulling it over in his head. "There was no preemptive storm." he tells her. 

Grace looks at Five. "The source is inside of this house." 

"That's what I thought too, but I've searched the entire place, top to bottom, there's no-" 

"Vanya." Grace interrupts, bringing Five to a full stop. 

"What?" 

"The cause of this, it must be your sister." Grace looks worried now. "Five, it is pertinent that I tell you now. The reason Reginald was heavily medicating Vanya was due to the fact that he could not control her p-" 

"Hey, sorry to interrupt-" Vanya-speak of the devil-is standing at the end of the hall, hands twisted up together. "You forgot to give me my night meds." 

Five is still frowning when he turns to face Vanya. "Ah, yeah, no, sorry, I'll get them now."

It hadn't occurred to him to scrutinize among his own... 

Grace follows the two into Fives quarters. He uses a flashlight to go through his drawer of pills and lets out a faint curse. 

"What's wrong?" Vanya tries to peer over his shoulder but can't see much in the dark. 

Five looks at her, kicking himself. "I fucked up this morning. I should have given you a dose of forty milligrams but I accidentally gave you the night time dose. Shit, I'm so sorry Vanya, I swear it won't happen again, I should've been more attentive-"

Vanya blinks, seemingly in awe. "No, that-I mean, it's fine. Better than fine, actually. I was wondering why I felt so restless all day... I had all this pent up, I don't know, _energy_ today. I never feel energetic." 

"Right, that's good, I'm glad, but I think for tonight I might have to switch your dose and give you a forty and tomorrow we'll resume the usual-"

"No." Vanya shakes her head incredulously. "Didn't you hear what I just said? I felt fine today without the high morning dose. I don't want to take the pills anymore. Period." 

Five frowns. "Vanya, I understand-"

"No you don't!" Vanya raises her voice, irritated by the fact that she's not being listened to. "You don't get what it's like not to have control over your own body like this. I don't want to take those stupid pills anymore. And you can't make me!" 

"I'm doing this for your own good, Vee, if you quit cold turkey the withdrawal is going to be hell-" 

" _I said 'no_ '!" Vanya's eyes turn into orbs of light so bright it swallows up all of the darkness in the room and suddenly Five and Grace are flying backwards and into the furniture. Vanya gasps, eyes going back to normal in a flash. "Oh god, I-" 

Grace is in a heap near Five's headboard, her neck at a sickening angle, and Five is sat up against the wall, a continuous downpour of blood seeping from his head, staining his white shirt a dark red in a matter of seconds. 

"F-Five?" She takes a half step forward, horrified. "Mom?"

But neither the android nor her brother so much as stir. 

*******************************

Five comes to, nauseated by the smell of ammonia, which he recognizes as smelling salts once he sees the inhalant held in Diego's hand under his nose. 

"Told you he was alive." Klaus chirps somewhere in the back. 

Allison utters out a grateful, " _Oh thank god_." beside him. "Five, what happened? And where's Vanya?" 

Five groans. His head is killing him, his back and neck, too. He feels like one giant bruise. "Vanya?" What happened to Vanya? And Grace. If he remembers right mom was with them, no? 

Grace appears in front of him with a cloth she uses to press against the back of his skull. He winces and tries to get away but she insists this is for his own benefit. "You need to stay still. You have sustained a concussion. How severe, however, I do not know yet." 

And like a glass of cold water splashed across his face, it suddenly comes back to him and Five curses. " _Vanya_! Mom, did you see where she went?" 

Grace shakes her head. "I was momentarily incapacitated, I'm afraid. I only came to a few moments ago, right as the children found us." 

"What the hell's going on? Where's Vanya? Did somebody take her? Was it whoever attacked you guys?" Allison furrows her brow anxiously, wringing her hands and pacing the room. 

Grace takes the first aid kit handed to her by Diego and as she begins to treat the head wound, she turns to Allison and says, "She should be alright. It was Vanya who attac-" 

" _Mom_!" Five cuts her off with a look but it's too late. 

Allison gapes at the pair. "Wait, what? Vanya attacked you two? That-that's not possible. There's no way. Mom, your neck was _broken_ , and Five, I mean, you're _you_." she shakes her head in disbelief. 

Luther, beside her, agrees wholeheartedly. "Vanya wouldn't hurt a fly. Not to mention she doesn't have the ability to, even if she wanted to." 

Five licks his lips nervously. "Mom's just confused. I'll run diagnostics later." 

But Grace- _oh Grace, with her new found free will_ -is having none of Five's bullshitting. "I am not confused." she frowns. "Five, as you have the right to know, so do your siblings." She turns to the children and braces herself. "Vanya is not as ordinary as your father would have liked you all to believe. She, like all of you, does in fact have superpowers. Reginald realized very early on that try as he might, he did not have the patience or the capability to control said powers." Grace gently presses her hand against Allison's shoulder. "He used your power to rumor Vanya into believing she was simply ordinary when you were all still extremely young. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't quite recall the day." 

Allison thinks she might vomit. She erased her sisters abilities with just a few words...?

Grace finally turns to Five. "I understand why you would want to keep Vanya's attack and perhaps even her powers a secret, but it's prudent everyone be on the same page, if we're going to have any success in finding her, don't you agree?" 

The androids reasoning is more than sound, and though Five wants to be upset at being usurped in front of the kids, he's well aware that there are more pressing issues at hand. "Agreed." 

"Why didn't her powers manifest until now?" Luther asks, shaken by the amount of damage meek tiny Vanya managed to cause. 

Klaus hums. "Is it those pills Dad was making her take?" 

Diego and Luther look at Klaus. "What pills?" they ask simultaneously. 

Klaus shrugs. "Not really sure, I just remember seeing her take a random pill every now and again-I thought maybe she suffered from migraines or something. But I mean, drugs would make sense, no?" 

Allison nods, quiet. "Dad was force feeding her anti anxiety meds, a really high dose of it, actually. She told me about it. She wanted to stop." she glares at Five. "But Five wouldn't let her." 

Five sighs, wincing as Grace presses gauze against his still bleeding head. "We were working our way up to that. If I'd let her quit cold turkey she would have suffered from an awful withdrawal. We were slowly lowering her dose. I-" he scowls, irritated with himself. "I fucked up this morning and gave her the wrong dose by accident. It was too low. Most likely Vanya is what caused the power outage earlier. Her powers have started to reveal themselves. We _need_ to find her." 

Luther frowns. "She attacked you and mom. She's dangerous. We need to proceed with caution." 

"She didn't mean to." Five defends. "But she's probably scared shitless right now and her powers are unstable and very new to her, so yes, we do need to be very careful. I doubt she's in the house anymore, but we should check all the rooms just in case." 

Allison nods. "I'll look in the library and study." 

The others each pick other rooms to search and Five takes the rest, seeing as he's the quickest. 

Grace shakes her head. "Let the children look. You shouldn't be teleporting just yet." 

"We don't have time for this. She could be anywhere." 

"You're still bleeding." 

Five touches the side of his head and realizes she's right. Fresh blood is dripping at a steady pace down his left eye and cheek. Sloppily, he wraps gauze tape securely around his head. "That should hold." And before waiting for a response he's blinked away, leaving Grace to search the west wing of the house. 

************************

After confirming that Vanya isn't in the vicinity they split into two groups. "Pogo, you stay here and call me on my cell if Vanya returns before we do, alright?" 

Pogo nods dutifully, frowning with worry as he watches Five take Allison and Luther one way and Grace, Diego and Klaus the other. 

It's so dark out they need flashlights in order to see where they're actually headed. 

"Why would you try to keep Vanya's attack and powers a secret from us?" Luther asks-though it sounds a lot more like an accusation than anything. 

Five tries to shove his nausea to the backburner and focus on searching instead. "I just found out myself-I wanted time to process. And..." he sighs. "I didn't want any of you to get the wrong idea and think you need to be afraid of Vanya. She didn't mean to hurt me or mom. It was an accident." 

Luther stops in his tracks. "But she did." he huffs. "She _hurt_ you. And mom. She broke moms neck-what if that had been you? You're lucky you were standing where you were or you'd probably be dead. Look, I know dad was an asshole, ok? I know he did some seriously fucked up things, but hasn't it crossed your mind that if dad of all people was afraid of Vanya that maybe we should be too? Dad wasn't scared of anything." 

Allison glares at Luther, flashing her light in his face. "Vanya's probably terrified and confused as all hell. We're her family. Fuck what Reginald thought." 

Five nods. "I second that." 

Luther folds his arms across his chest adamantly, remaining in place. 

"Look, if you want, you can turn back now and go wait at home with Pogo." Five gives him an out. "We'll be back when Vanya's been found. Alright?" 

Luther nods reluctantly. He wants to stay with Five and Allison, truthfully. But he also needs time to wrap his head around the absolute fuckery that the last half hour of his life has been. 

Once he's gone Allison turns to Five. "Do you have any idea about where she might have gone? Besides the library at home I can't really think of anywhere she'd run off to?" 

Five mulls it over in his head despite the enormous ache still resounding inside of his skull. "Remember that little diner we used to all sneak out to on the rare occasion dad was out of town?" 

Allison nods excitedly. "Yes!"

It's the only time Vanya was included... 

They're not even sure if the place is open, given the fact that the entire town is experiencing a massive black out, but still, Five holds out a hand for Allison and blinks them so that they're standing beside the diner. It's lit up dimly with lanterns on every table and on the counter top. The place looks oddly romantic that way. 

Five takes a step forward and practically falls over, having to catch himself last second, hands on his knees, breathing harsh and hallow. 

Allison leans down, concern knitting her brows together at the middle. "You're really pale..." 

Five swallows back the urge to throw up and the shakes away the numbness in his hands. He's so dizzy. "Don't worry about me. Come on, I think I see her inside." He stops at the door and turns to Allison, face serious. "You said it yourself. Vanya's probably scared shitless and feeling really lost right now. So I need you to stay behind me. Got it?" 

Allison nods, though she wants to argue that she doesn't think Vanya would hurt her. 

The diner is nearly empty, except for the waitress in the corner serving a patron a cup of coffee. She tells them she'll be right with them when she sees the pair enter. Five waves her off. "Take your time." 

At the very end of the counter, Vanya hears the familiar voice and looks up like a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide. "You're alive?" she whispers. The tears are inevitable, falling in big fat drops down her cheeks. "You're _alive_. I-I'm so s-sorry." she cries. 

Five shakes his head. "It was an accident. I know you didn't mean to." 

Vanya tries to wipe at her face but the tears just keep coming. "D-did you know? About me? My p-powers? This whole time?" 

Five shakes his head. "No, but it makes sense. Why dad had you on medication you didn't need. Grace was in the middle of telling me earlier, but I didn't realize until-well," he shrugs. 

"Until I almost killed you." Vanya finishes, sniffling. 

"I'm fine." Five lies. 

"Half of your face is covered in dried blood!" Vanya cries. "You weren't moving. You and mom, both." 

Allison peers out from behind Five. "Mom's ok, too. We just want to get you back home, Vee." 

Vanya shakes her head. "I'm a danger to all of you. I-these _powers_ -I can't control them. I shouldn't be around people." 

"You weren't given the _opportunity_ to learn how to control them, Vanya." Five makes fists at his side. "Dad took that away from you because he was scared of what he couldn't control. But that's on him, not you. We can figure this out, together. But you can't run away from this. From us." 

Vanya bites her bottom lip. "But _you_ did. You ran." 

Five gulps, forcing himself not to flinch at the accusation in her tone. "I know I did. That's why you should take it from me, who's been there and done that. It's _shit_. I wish every single day that I had swallowed my stupid pride and just stayed." 

Vanya takes a step forward from her stool. "You promise?" 

Five nods. "I do. Come home. _Please_." He holds out a hand, hoping to God she'll take it. 

Hesitantly, Vanya reaches out, and just as the tip of her finger brushes against his, the sound of heels clacking against the floor turns Five's blood to ice. He can feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand. 

"Oh, well isn't this a fun little late night family outing?" 

Five grabs hold of Allison by the back of her shirt collar and turns, dragging her behind him next to Vanya. His fists flash a menacing blue, stance ready for a fight. 

"Five, _sweetheart_ , you're not going to introduce me?" The Handler pouts, as if her feelings have been hurt. 

"Five, who's that?" Allison peeks over his shoulder. 

The Handler smiles an overly saccharine smile. It makes something in Five's stomach churn. "I'm an old friend-or, should I say, future friend?" 

Vanya pokes her head out from his other side, curious. "Are you Delores?" 

The Handler lets out a mocking bout of laughter that echoes rancorously inside of the little diner. "Delores?" she gives Five a devious look, like the cat who ate the canary, her mouth shaped into a perfect little 'O'. "You haven't told them?" 

"Told us what?" Allison frowns. This lady rubs her the wrong way. And Five is about as tense as she's ever seen him. She couldn't cut the tension in the room unless she had a chainsaw. 

The Handler shrugs, pursing her lips. "Hmm. I shouldn't say. All in good time, no, Five? You know all about good timing, after all." 

Five is clenching his jaw so hard he thinks his molars might snap under the pressure. His heart is hammering in his ribcage, fast like a humming bird. "What are you doing here?" he manages to get out. 

"Truth be told, I was really hoping this was the timeline where you screwed this pep talk of yours so monumentally it ended in the extinction of life on Earth itself. And I wanted a front row seat to that." She sighs, disappointed. "Unfortunately, it's not. Perhaps next time." The Handler swivels around, turning her back to the trio, her heels clack clack clacking as she starts for the exit. 

Five blinks in front of her and charges, armed with nothing but a fork, only to be thrown backwards by an invisible force field. 

She scoffs. "Come now. You really do underestimate me, Five. You seriously think I'd come here completely defenseless? Against _you_? Please. Give me some credit." 

Allison steps up behind her and says, "I heard a rumor you couldn't move." 

The Handler makes a show of turning around, pressing down a wrinkle in her skirt. "Oh I'm sorry, did you say something?" She points to her ears; she's wearing what look like an odd, nearly undetectable pair of wireless headphones. "The Commission really did outdo themselves with these bad boys." She takes a threatening step forward.

A mistake. 

Five blinks, and for a moment there's nothing but a flash of blue slithering across The Handlers back. And then there he is, the pointy prongs of the fork at her jugular. Five is getting shocked by the force field, but he pays the pain no mind, gritting his teeth next to her ear. "Ready to die?" 

The Handler stands perfectly still. "I die and the Commission will stop taking it so easy on you. You become a real threat and they _will_ send assassins after you. Good ones. And it won't just be you they're after. It will be this happy little family you claim to love so much." She gulps as the fork is pressed closer, harder, drawing a thin line of blood. "I'm the only thing standing between you and an army, Five." The Handler assures him. 

There's a long delay, in which Five considers all of his options. 

Finally, he blinks, now standing in front of her, putting his body between The Handler and Allison. "Go."

If she's not bluffing the room would have been filled to the brim with assassins within seconds of her death and though he's sure he can guarantee a win against a ridiculous number of Commission agents, he's not willing to take the chance of any collateral damage. 

Not with Allison and Vanya in the diner. 

The Handler lets out a small breath, miffed. "Watch yourself." She warns him. "I'll be around Number Five." The Handler throws him the tracker he'd planted on her person the previous time, on her way out. It's been deactivated and crushed under the heel of someone's shoe. "Better luck next time." she laughs heartily and the bell above the door chimes as she exits. 

"W-what was that?" Vanya stutters out. 

Five glowers at the door, as if waiting for her to double back. "We need to get back." He grabs both of the girls by the shoulder and blinks them out of the diner, only a blue hue left in their midst. 

From behind the counter, Agnes the waitress, in her scuffed pink uniform and coffee stained white apron slowly appears, her entire body trembling in equal parts awe and fear. "What in God's name...." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE SUPPORT!!!!! <333333333333 
> 
> I've been very busy lately but am going to aim to update either on or before Wednesday (10.14.20)! :)


	20. Chapter 20

Fives knees buckle and he collapses between Allison and Vanya in the middle of the kitchen floor as soon as they teleport from the diner.

The nausea is back, full fledged. 

He pukes up the meager contents of his stomach, hacking and heaving up mostly bile. 

"Five!" Allison drops down beside him, one hand on his back, the other on his shoulder to keep him steady. 

Vanya shuffles back, guilty. "I-I'll get mom." 

Five gets a hold of himself and shakes his head. "They're still out looking for you." he coughs out. He digs into his coat pocket and hands his cell to Allison. "Call, let mom know we've found Vee; tell them to come home. Quickly." 

Allison looks down at the phone, surprised to see that Grace is in his contacts. "Mom has a phone?" 

Five nods, struggling to get words out past the intense nausea he's feeling. "I got her one when Pogo suggested I get one. Just in case." She and Pogo are in fact his only contacts. 

It takes Grace and the other two children nearly a half hour to return. 

Klaus stupefies Vanya with a hug when they see each other. "I'm glad you're ok." he tells her, squeezing her shoulders briefly before pulling back. "One sibling ghost is enough." he mutters to himself. 

At some point Luther joins the rest of the family in the kitchen, with Pogo tagging along behind him with the first aid kit in hand. "We should attend to your wounds before anything else, Master F-I mean, Five." 

"I'm fine." Five waves him off, though he's sure he doesn't sound even half convincing with the way he's swaying on his feet.

The collective eye roll around the room is almost comical to a point. 

"He was throwing up just now." Allison tattles without a shred of guilt. "And he was electrocuted...I think." She furrows her brows. "There was a woman at the diner and she had this weird force field around her and it shocked-" 

"That's not important right now." Five cuts her off. 

Allison scoffs incredulously. "I'm sorry, we finally get to meet someone from your _past-future_ and that's 'not important'?" 

"Wait, seriously?" Klaus sits down on the chair right across from where Pogo has now made Five sit, and blinks up prettily at Allison. "Well? Spill the hot goss, sister o' mine." 

While Five is distracted by his siblings Pogo begins to assess and clean his head injury, Grace at his side frowning at the amount of blood matting his dark hair. 

"We went looking for Vanya and we found her in this diner-" Allison begins. 

Luther looks at Vanya, admittedly sentimental when he asks, "The diner we used to sneak off to when we were little?" 

Vanya gulps, nodding quietly. "Felt safe." she shrugs. "Familiar." 

Luther smiles at her. "I get that." 

"Ok, _and then_?" Diego insists now, curiosity eating at him. 

"So, we're all about to head home when this lady in this like, really extravagant dress comes strolling up to us in her high heels. She knows Five for sure, calls him by his name and everything, and she knows we're his family. Vanya and I both thought it might be Delores." 

"She's _not_." Five cuts in again, jaw set firmly as he lets Pogo and Grace stitch him up. He knows there's nothing he can do at this point to bury the nights events under the rug. But there's no way he's letting them drag Delores' name through the mud by comparing her to the likes of The Handler. 

Allison frowns at him. "No duh, we gathered that much. What we don't know is who she actually is to you. Or why you tried to stab her in the neck with a _fork_!" 

Diego blinks. "With a fork? Dude, you didn't have a knife handy? Always carry a knife with you." he shakes his head in disbelief. 

Luther looks at him like he's stupid. "That is so not the issue here, birdbrain." 

Diego glares at him. "Ok, but it should be. I'm just saying." 

Allison rolls her eyes. "Oh my God, we are getting so off track-" 

Klaus sighs. "There's just so much to talk about, I mean, what really is off track at this point? No one's gonna' bring up the fact that our littlest sister has freaking _super powers_? Bad ass enough powers, by the way, to plunge the entire town into a medieval type black out for the foreseeable future? Nobody? Just me?" 

Vanya shrinks back into herself at the mention of her powers. 

Grace lets Pogo handle the rest of the clean up and steps out from behind him. "Vanya, Reginald realized when you were four years old that your powers were too much for him to handle adequately. He could not use them, and so he erased them from your mind and bribed your psychiatrist into prescribing you those meds. To keep you under his thumb." 

Vanya frowns. "He erased them?" 

Allison takes a step back, nervous suddenly, and ashamed. "It's my fault." she admits, "I-I didn't realize, I didn't even really remember until mom told us what happened, but it was me, Vanya, I made you forget about your powers, and I'm the one who rumored you into thinking you were just ordinary. I'm..." her lip wobbles and she looks away, wiping surreptitiously at her face. "I'm so _sorry_ Vanya." 

Vanya stares at her for a moment and it's quiet in the room, tense. "You were four too..." she finally says. "We were just kids. It's not your fault. I know that." 

Allison clutches at the hem of her shirt. "You're not mad?" 

Vanya shakes her head. "Not at you." 

Klaus interrupts the moment with an inquisitive, "So, what is your power, exactly?" 

Vanya shrugs helplessly. "I don't really know? I just, I felt this weird pulse of hot energy running through me when I was getting frustrated earlier and it...burst out of me? I didn't mean to." she looks at Five again, as if looking for forgiveness. 

"I know you didn't." Five winces when Pogo pulls at a stitch just a tad too hard. "It's late. I think we should all wait to talk about this until morning-" 

"Hell no." Diego stands his ground. "You're just trying to get us to stop asking questions about that diner lady, aren't you? Or maybe you're just giving yourself enough time to come up with lies to explain her away." 

Luther nods, for once in agreement with Diego. "He's right. I think we've all given you more than enough time to settle back in. And still you're sitting there not willing to tell us a thing about the last seventeen years of your life. That's not fair to us. How are we ever supposed to trust you, Five?" 

"It's true." Allison says decisively. "It's time for some answers." 

Five is backed up into a corner. A bad one. To tell them about The Handler would be to open the door to the Temps Commission. And worst of all, it would inevitably lead to letting the apocalyptic cat out of the proverbial bag. 

"Or what?"

Allison blinks at him. "What do you mean?" 

Five stands to his full height, ignoring the sudden tilt of the room. "If I don't answer your questions, what then?" He shrugs, trying to come off as nonchalant. "What do you kids plan to do, exactly?" He raises an unimpressed brow. 

The children all trade looks among one another. 

Finally, Vanya speaks. "Then...we're done." 

Five frowns. "' _Done_ '?" he repeats. 

"Yes. Done. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we're sick and tired of all these secrets being kept from us. We're a family." she looks around the room at her other siblings and they nod, encouraging her to go on. "If you want to be a part of it, you need to be able to trust us. Luther's right, it's difficult to trust you when it's so obvious you're hiding things from us. What's to say you won't just up and leave again when all of this becomes too inconvenient for you?" 

Being raked across hot coals would be preferable to this, Five thinks, his vision whiting out momentarily. He swallows hard. 

Five calls their bluff with an air of confidence he doesn't actually feel. "Do whatever you want." 

The truth is, he's terrified. He's worked too hard and too long to get back to his family; only to lose them over something so...trivial. 

The hurt and anger in varying degrees displayed on all of their faces is painful to witness, but Five knows it's this or the truth. And there's no way in hell he's opening that can of worms. 

Allison is so mad she has to stop herself from rumoring Five into just answering all of their questions. She tries to bite her tongue. She doesn't want to say anything she might end up regretting, but it comes tumbling out anyway. "You're just like Reginald." she mutters. "Are all adults secretive assholes or is it just you two?" she shakes her head and stalks away. 

The others follow suit, all except for Klaus, who stays seated, peering up at Five from under his long lashes. 

"Don't worry." Klaus sighs. "I still like you big bro." 

Five lets out a humorless chuckle. "Oh yeah? Can't imagine why." 

Klaus twiddles his thumbs. "We all have our secrets." he shrugs. "I can't blame you for yours." 

Five looks at him. Really looks at him, for the first time. He sits down, exhausted. 

Pogo and Grace have both left the room. Grace, to comfort the children, and Pogo to clean up and put out all of the candles, since it is now well past midnight. 

"Is that so?" 

Klaus licks his lips. He wants to tell him his secret; he knows the others can sometimes be a little black and white about-well- _everything_. But he knows he can trust Five. He just has a feeling in his gut, is all. 

He also knows that once he lets it out Five might not let him ignore his powers any longer, and that's not something he's willing to relent just yet. 

So instead he clears his throat and nods. "Yup. Anyway, I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late, old timer. Oh and," Klaus presses his lips together. "Give the rest of 'em some time. I'm sure they'll come around. G'night." 

"Night Klaus." Five holds his head in his hands and closes his eyes. He doesn't know if time will quite help in this situation, though he can't help but hope so. 

Eventually he gets up. The candle in the kitchen has finally gone out and he's been left in the pitch black all by himself. 

And well, isn't that just the way it always goes? he thinks, bitter and lonely and tired. 

******************************

Five is a no show for breakfast the next morning but none of the siblings brings up the empty spot at the end of the table. 

After breakfast, however, Vanya does head upstairs and hesitantly, she knocks on Five's door once and then twice and then a third time when there's no answer. "Five?" 

At last, the door swings open to reveal a disheveled looking Five leaning against the door frame. "Everything alright?" he's surprised to see her here. 

Surprised and a little bit optimistic. Maybe he hasn't ruined everything? 

"I'm here for my pill. You were right about that, at least. I don't think I should quit altogether. Now that I know they're helping keep my powers under control." 

He has to fight hard to keep the disappointment out of his voice when he nods and says, "Right." Five turns around and has to blink away the black dots that dance in front of his blurred vision. Sighing, he picks up the forty milligram bottle along with the twenty milligram one in his drawer. "Here." he hands them both to Vanya. 

She stares at him skeptically. "What are you doing?" 

Five shrugs. "I'm trusting you to take two of those a day, until we decide to lower the dose, and eventually we'll have you weaned off of the drug entirely." 

"Thank you." Vanya takes the bottles and retreats, not sure what to think, if she's honest with herself. Five has always been smarter than most; this could very well be a manipulative tactic he's using to get her back on his side. 

She hesitates outside of his bedroom, doubt nagging at her about whether she should walk away or stay and try to talk to Five, but only for a few seconds, before she makes her way back to her room.

If he wanted to talk, he would have done so last night, she reminds herself. 

*******************************

Once the children are done with their studies for the day Five catches them in the living room before they can all disperse. 

"I've posted a schedule for practice on the fridge for the next week." He announces. "And just to reiterate, for those of you who would rather not, these sessions aren't mandatory." 

He shouldn't be surprised by the way the children all choose to ignore him and continue packing all of their school work away as if he hadn't said a word. Klaus is the only one that gives him a sympathetic little wave as he leaves the room with the rest of his brothers and sisters. 

Once they've all left Five sighs and mumbles, "Good talk." 

Pogo, who Five hadn't realized is still in the room gathering his own supplies from teaching, clears his throat. "I believe Grace was looking for you earlier." 

Five only jumps a little, startled, before smoothing out his shirt. "Oh, uh, ok, thanks." He looks at Pogo and asks, "How are you dealing with it?" 

Pogo looks back at him. "I'm sorry, how am I dealing with what, exactly?" 

"The kids. I know they've been... _standoffish_ since we found those tapes. I guess I'd like to know what I'm in for." he shrugs. 

"Ah," Pogo nods in understanding. "I am coping, if that's what you wanted to know. I have a question of my own, if you'll allow." 

"Shoot." 

"Why won't you simply tell them the truth?" Pogo sighs. "All of these secrets; I've learned the hard way that they only lead to mistrust and resentment. Five, you were making such great strides with the children. Better than Master Reginald could have ever imagined, quite frankly. I would hate to see it all go to waste." 

"Pogo," Five sits down and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You don't even know the half of it. _I can't._ I can't tell them any of it. It would be a fucking disaster." 

Pogo raises a brow. "And what would you call this, now, then?" 

"Salvageable." 

"If you say so."

**************************

The practice schedule Five had posted earlier in the kitchen had Allison in the first slot at four o'clock in the study. 

Grace finds Five there, still waiting at a half past four. "How are you feeling?" 

"Like I've been stood up." Five deadpans, leaning back in his chair and away from his desk. 

Grace nods. "Yes, I saw the schedule posted downstairs. Allison is in her room with Vanya and Klaus. They are using the nail polish you bought them during your outing at the mall." 

Five sighs. "Yeah, I figured as much." 

"You should be more honest with them." 

"Not you too." he groans. "You and Pogo don't realize the extent of what you're asking for." 

"That is because you refuse to tell us." Grace huffs. "I don't think anybody is asking you to spill your guts forth-we're only asking to be let in, just a bit. You could call a family meeting right now. You could tell them you're not comfortable sharing everything all at once, but would be willing to give them something, even-"

"That's just it." Five interrupts. "I'm not. I'm not willing to give them anything. My past is not important. What I've done, where I've been, what the hell does it matter, it has nothing to do with our present timeline, so why?" 

"You're a perfectly smart young man, Five, you don't need me to answer that for you." Grace gives him a look and shakes her head. "Now, I do believe you have another scheduled practice coming up in a few." 

Five checks the clock on the wall and sees that she's right. Court yard with Diego in eight minutes. He might as well start making his way down now. 

***************************

Much to his pleasant surprise Diego shows up-a few minutes late-but still. Five can't quite hide his smile. "Hey." 

Diego doesn't bother returning it. "I'm ready. Let's start." 

Five nods. "I thought we could continue with yesterday's practice." He takes the hackey sack out from his back pocket and lightly tosses it in the air. 

"Ok." 

Five blinks and tosses the ball from the roof. Diego catches it mid flight but unlike the day before he doesn't get frustrated too easily. He simply throws the ball back in Fives direction and gets back in a ready stance once again. 

This goes on for nearly forty minutes before the ball stops mid air, about two inches from Diego's face. He gasps and it falls to the ground. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Did you see that?!" 

Five blinks back over to his side, excited. "That was amazing! I knew you could do it." 

Diego grins up at him, practically jumping out of his skin, thrilled. "That was so cool! It just stopped right there!" he measures the distance out with his fingers to show Five, just in case he missed it. "I raised my hand to catch it but I could feel like this _push_ or something so instead I just let the ball keep going and _bam_! It stopped!" 

"You're doing really good Diego. And this was just two days of practice. I'm impressed." Five is proud of the kid. This is a huge leap forward for him. 

Diegos grin suddenly dissipates, as though he's remembered himself. Remembered he's supposed to be angry at Five along with his other siblings. "Anyway, let's keep going." 

Five nods solemnly. "Lets." 

He fails to control the ball three times, dodging at the very last moment instead, but on his fourth attempt Diego manages to get the hack sack to stop nearly three inches from his face this time and lets out a whoop before throwing the ball back to Five and demanding another go. 

Five blinks so that he's behind Diego now, about twenty feet away, and tosses the ball. The more unexpected the location he throws it, the better Diegos powers react. 

Diego turns and stops the ball again, grinning widely. "This is so cool." he awes. "Again!" 

Five blinks but only makes it about a foot to his left before his knees give out on him. "Shit." he hadn't realized how hard he'd been pushing himself until now. His head is pounding. 

"Five!" Diego runs across the courtyard and drops down next to him. 

"I'm fine." Five exhales. "Just dizzy." he forces himself to stand up. "Do you mind if we stop here for the day?" They've still got a few minutes left, and he can tell Diego was ecstatic to keep going. 

"'Course not." Diego looks at him. "You should probably be in bed. I got a concussion last year and mom made me rest the next day. She even got me out of training." 

Five swallows down the nausea he's feeling. "Maybe later. Good job today." 

Diego nods. "Thanks." 

***********************

Luther skips practice, so Five waits outside for another hour after Diego goes back inside but nobody shows up. 

If nothing else, he has time enough to think. 

And he does just that. He thinks about the cluster fuck disaster that was last night. Everything would be fine today if The Handler hadn't made an appearance and stuck her goddamn nose in his business. 

He should have let her leave when she'd turned around that first time. If he hadn't given into impulse and leapt at her and failed, Allison wouldn't have gotten involved, The Handler wouldn't have turned her ire at her- Five curses. Nearly everything that could have gone wrong last night, did.

And it all falls on his shoulders. 

He thinks about what mom told him. To let out bits and pieces of himself and his past, a little at a time. She seems to believe the children would be alright with this, would give him more time to tell them everything if he gives them something, anything, now. But she doesn't know about his isolation, the near starvation, the crying and the drinking-Delores hated the drinking-Grace doesn't know about the fucking apocalypse and so she has no idea what she's really asking him to say out loud. 

"I think it's my turn?" 

Five snaps out of his thoughts and sees that Vanya has arrived for practice. "It is." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise in the next chapter something actually happens lol thank you all for your continued support!!! <3333 :)


	21. Chapter 21

"Sound waves?" Vanya stares at Five. "You think I can _control_ sound waves?" 

"I think you can manipulate them. You're able to turn them into energy you can then use to do-well, anything." Five explains. "Your powers are pretty limitless."

She thinks back to yesterday, when she supposedly caused the power outage their town is still in the midst of now. “I was playing the violin last night...” 

Five nods. "Do you remember how you felt then?” 

"Um," she hesitates. "Frustrated?"

"And you were angry last night, in my room, right?"

Vanya nods. "Yeah, I-I was mad because you weren't listening to me." she looks down at her feet. "But I didn't mean to..."

"I know." Five assures her. "That's why we're here. To practice. Make sure it doesn't happen again. It seems like your powers are tied strongly to your emotional state; it makes sense now, why dad kept you on the paxil." he says, mostly to himself.

Vanya frowns. "So you agree with him? You think I should be drugged too?"

Five shakes his head immediately. "That's not what I said. I want you to learn control. It's not going to be easy, but if you're willing to do the work and let me help you, I know you can do this."

"Ok." she licks her lips and warns him, full disclosure, "I took the full dose this morning, plus my nightly dose, about a half hour ago. So...I don't know if my powers will even be active or whatever."

"It's best to start off this way-using your powers right off the bat at a hundred percent when you don't have a full understanding of them probably isn't the smartest way to go."

She nods anxiously. "Ok. Good. Um, I'm ready then, I think. What first?"

They start in the kitchen, where Five places an empty glass cup down on the table. He taps it gently with a butter knife and says, "I want you to try and convert the sound wave into enough energy to move the cup about an inch to the left. Sound good?"

Vanya doesn't look sure at all, but nods nonetheless, willing herself to really concentrate.

 _Clink_ he taps.

But however much Vanya glares at the cup nothing occurs. 

This happens a few times before Five tells her to try and tie an emotion to it. "You were upset the first two times," he says. "Your powers and your emotions seem to be intertwined."

"You want me to get mad?" she tilts her head.

"Not necessarily, no. I think emotion in general is bound to trigger it, so long as you feel it strongly enough. I know you took your meds for the day, so it'll probably be tough, but I still think we should give it a go."

Vanya sighs. She doesn't think this is going to work. But still, if there's even a small possibility that it will-why not? "Ok."

Is confusion an emotion, she wonders, because it's the majority of what she's feeling at the moment. She tries again and again and again, without any success. The cup doesn't move. Not even a single centimeter.

Almost forty minutes in, Vanya is starting to let the lack of progress discourage her.

From her peripherals, she notices several heads struggling to peek into the room; not exactly subtle. 

Five does too, though he doesn’t bother turning around before asking, "You guys need something?"

There's a mumbled: "I _told_ you he could see us." And some quiet bickering before Allison, Luther, Diego and Klaus all step out from behind the entrance and stumble into the kitchen, abashed.

"We were just curious, is all." Klaus is the first and only one to admit. "I mean, c'mon, Vanya's got _powers_! What's there not to see?"

Vanya's never been the center of attention like this. It feels kind of good, if she's being honest with herself. 

"Can they stay?" she asks Five. “I don’t mind, really.” 

Five blinks at her. He would rather practice one on one-he finds that it's easier to concentrate this way-but it’s always been hard to say no to Vanya and he knows if he does say no it's just one more strike against him, as far as the children are concerned. 

"Sure." he makes it a point to look at the rest of his siblings. "Stay over there and out of the way, got it?"

They all nod in agreement, excited to see Vanya's powers at work for the first time ever. 

"Alright. Let's go again."

 _Clink_.

Focus, she thinks, focus on one emotion and convert the waves into energy. Focus. Now that everyone is here, gawking at her, it feels like she's got something to prove. 

_See_? She wants to say. _I do belong, after all. I'm not just ordinary._

But nothing happens. The cup doesn't shift. It stands there, still as can be, almost as if to mock her. 

_Clink_.

Nothing.

 _Clink_.

And nothing, still. 

She curses faintly under her breath, irritated.

From the corner of the room, Allison starts to cheer her on. "You can do it!" she half whispers.

"Yeah Vanny, you got this!" Klaus whoops.

Vanya can't help but smile.

Five taps the glass again. _Clink_.

Happiness.

That's not a feeling she's very familiar with, but she can feel the warmth of it come in a rush. 

Luther pumps a fist and joins in on the encouragement, "Let's go Vanya!" 

The cup falls on its side with a loud _thunk_. Five catches it before it can roll off the table.

"Oh shit!" Klaus gasps. "You got it!"

"That was awesome!" Allison cheers, running over to Vanya to give her a hug. Vanya sinks into it, grinning from ear to ear.

_She did it._

She can hardly believe it.

Five smiles at her. "That was great."

Vanya practically beams at him, elated.

Diego, from the corner of the room, huffs. "So she dropped a cup, big deal."

Allison turns to glare at him. "You know there's no prize for biggest jerk in the house, right? You can totally stop competing any time now."

Diego rolls his eyes. "When the hell did you become Vanya's cheerleader, anyway? Three months ago you were wondering why dad even kept her if she didn't have any powers!"

Vanya flinches. It's not like she didn't know how they felt about her; but that had been _before_ , she tries to remind herself. 

Things aren't like that anymore.

"Cut it out." Five tries to intervene.

But Luther talks right over him, calling Diego an asshole. "Oh no, something's not about me, why don't I go ahead and ruin it? That's what you sound like, Diego."

"That's really funny, coming from you!" Diego yells.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Luther yells right back.

"Diego just shut up already!" Allison stomps her foot. "You're just mad 'cause your power sucks and now that everyone has one yours is officially the lowest ranking one."

Diego leaps at Allison with a closed fist and she just narrowly manages to duck under it, throwing him off balance momentarily with a counter shove. Luther jumps right into the fray, throwing a punch that never gets the chance to land when Five blinks and catches his wrist and shouts at the three of them to stop.

" _Enough_!"

At once, every glass dish in the kitchen shatters into pieces, flying across the room. Five manages to pull Luther and Diego down to the floor and shields Allison and Klaus, both of whom are already behind him, with his body.

Vanya gasps in horror. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! That was-I didn't mean to!" The yelling had been growing more and more steadily and she had just wished for it to stop and _bam_! Glass, everywhere. 

Klaus peeks out from behind Fives shoulder in awe. "Dude, that was sick!"

Diego pushes Fives hand away and clutches at his arm where a sharp piece of glass has embedded itself on his shoulder. "That was stupid!" he glares daggers at Vanya.

"I said enough!" Fives voice booms over whatever the rest of his siblings were about to say, lulling the room into a dead silence.

Five has a few scratches on his face and tiny pieces of glass in his hair, but ignores that in order to check up on everyone. After making sure no one else is injured, he makes Diego sit down on the kitchen counter-the one place not littered with glass.

"I'm going to get the first aid kit, so stay here, alright?" He gives Diego a look until he receives an acknowledging nod back. "Ok." He turns to the rest of the group. "Everyone else help clean up please. But for the love of God, _be careful._ "

When he gets back with the kit he's surprised to see them all actually doing as they’ve been told. Vanya and Luther are sweeping and Klaus and Allison are collecting the glass into trash bags. 

And Diego hasn't moved an inch from where he left him.

Five gently removes the shard of glass from Diego's shoulder. Though it must hurt, the kid doesn't do so much as wince, letting Five clean and bandage the wound with a stoic face. "Move your fingers for me." Five holds him by the wrist and tests his motor skills. "Good." The glass didn't go in all that deep, fortunately, so there's no nerve damage he needs to worry about, and Diego didn't need stitches, either. Only a butterfly bandage.

Vanya slowly makes her way over to the duo and shuffles in place for a moment before Diego glares at her. "What do _you_ want?"

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Didn’t mean to stab me? What, like you didn't mean to fuck up the power grid or give Five a concussion or _break_ moms neck?!" Diego goes straight for the jugular, baring his teeth at her.

“She couldn’t control any of that. It’s not her fault, Diego. You need to understand that Dad-” Five suddenly sways dangerously on his feet. He has to grip onto the countertop Diego is on for support and he hunches over it, trying to blink the dark spots out of his vision and settle the sudden nausea building. 

"Five?"

The children all gather around in concern. "Woah, hey, what's wrong?" 

But Five can hardly lift his head, much less respond. He concentrates on breathing in and out through his mouth. His limbs feel like rubber, his head mush and the room is about ten degrees too hot. He's not sure how much time passes, only that from one moment to the next Grace has appeared. 

She gently pushes him into a chair and undoes the top two buttons of his dress shirt in hopes that it’ll help him draw in a less shuddering breath. "You're very pale. Are you feeling nausea? A headache, perhaps?" She rings out a wet dish towel and wipes it across his forehead and then places it behind his neck, cooling him down a bit.

"Nausea." he admits, swallowing hard. 

Grace tilts her head. It would be easy to chalk this up to his concussion, but Grace knows her son and too many of his bad habits. "Five, when was the last time you ate something of substance?"

"I saw him eat half a sandwich at lunch yesterday." Klaus pipes up.

Allison shakes her head. "He threw that up last night after we got back home from the diner. And he skipped breakfast, lunch and dinner today. Or at least, he didn't eat with us."

Five does not appreciate the snitching, but he also knows it comes from a place of concern. He feels a bit better now that he's no longer on his feet and the wet towel has done wonders, though he’s still clammy. "I'm fine." It's obvious from looking around the room that his words don't inspire any confidence, so he revises. "I'll _be_ fine." To be fair, he hadn't actually realized he'd forgotten to eat all day. And he'd expended a lot of energy to top it off. 

The fact that he feels like roadkill twice run over makes sense now. 

“I’m going to heat up leftovers from dinner.” Grace brushes his sweaty bangs from his forehead with such care Five nearly flinches away from the touch. Though the kids don’t notice, Grace does, and she looks almost sad as she turns away from him to retrieve the food from the fridge. 

Five can’t stand all the attention he unwittingly attracts from the kids a few moments later, as he forces himself to eat the reheated roast and mashed potatoes Grace serves him. 

Luther grabs a handful of snacks from the pantry and starts handing them out to everyone, encouraging them to eat, too. He can imagine it’s not very fun for Five to eat all alone while he’s watched like several pairs of hawk like eyes. The others catch on quickly and don’t complain, partaking in the food as well. 

It’s quiet except for the sound of chewing until Vanya finally looks up and across the table at Diego. “I really really didn’t intend to hurt you. Or Five. Or mom.” She bites her bottom lip. “These powers. They’re...unpredictable. And I can understand why dad wanted to keep me from ever finding out about them. Maybe I should just-” 

Diego stands up abruptly, the legs of his seat screeching against the floor behind him. “Look, do whatever you want. But don’t do it because of dad or ‘cause of me.” He leaves the room without another word. 

Five starts to get up to follow, but Grace stops him with a hand to his shoulder. “Stay. Eat. I’ll go.” she assures him. 

Five relents, but only because he knows she’s the better one for the job, anyway. He turns to Vanya instead. “Diego’s bullheaded but he’s not wrong. Don’t do anything because of what dad might have wanted, or because of what he thought was right or wrong. They’re your powers, Vanya. Yours. No one elses.” 

The words, so sure and so straight forward said, serve their purpose in giving Vanya some much needed solace. “Thank you.” 

****************************************************

“How’s Diego?” Five asks Grace later in the night, when she stops by his room to check up on him. 

“I believe he’s a tad jealous, but he should be alright, given some time and perhaps some perspective. If you’re asking physically: his arm will be sore for a day or two, but the cut should heal just fine. You did a good job on that.” Grace sits down next to him on his bed. “And how are you feeling?” 

“Better.” he lies. Truthfully, though the nausea has finally passed he still kind of feels like he’s not too far from passing out. He can’t quite distinguish that feeling from just plain old being tired, however. 

Grace hums. She doesn’t believe him one bit, he can tell. 

Five sighs and flops backwards onto the mattress. He covers his face with his forearms and groans. “Today was a fucking disaster, mom.” he confides. 

“How so?” 

He peers up at her from under his arms incredulously. “For one: three out of the four kids still hate me. Two: I let Diego get hurt on my watch. And three: I don’t have a clue as to what the fuck I’m doing.” 

Grace looks down at him. “You and I both know that the children do not hate you, Five. They are simply hurt and confused by your lack of faith in them. And Diego will be fine. You acted with haste as soon as it happened and took control of the situation. And as for the third thing: well, who really has any clue?” she shrugs. “You’re doing your best. I can see that.” 

Five rolls over and curls in on himself. Softly, unsure, he asks. “You mean that?” 

“Of course I do.” Grace lays down beside him, facing the ceiling. It’s dark now and only a handful of candles on Five’s desk provide any light. “You can talk to me, you know. About anything. I see you. And I can tell you have an abundance on your mind. There’s so much. And I would like you to know that I am here for you. If you would like a listening ear.” 

They lie in silence for a few more minutes before Grace begins to sit up. She’s surprised when Five latches onto her wrist, willing her to stay. She lays back down, slowly. Doesn’t say a word. She knows he needs time. And she’s happy to give it to him. 

Finally, he speaks. “I traveled too far into the future. Dad was right. He said traveling backwards would be nearly impossible and he was right. I was stuck there for so long I nearly lost my mind. Sometimes I get scared I did. And that even this, right now, is just something my brain’s made up to cope.” he admits in a hushed whisper, voice shaky. 

“Was the future really so bleak?” 

Five can’t bring himself to say it. Instead, he nods, burrows his face further into the mattress under him. “Can I tell you something?” 

“Yes, anything.” 

“But I need you to promise me you won’t tell anyone outside of this room what I’m about to say.” 

“I promise.” 

Five gulps. “I’m afraid. Afraid that...that maybe dad was right to keep Vanya medicated; unaware of her own powers. He was right about so many other things.” he grits his teeth. “She has unlimited, untapped potential. And her powers, they’re destructive. Tied to her emotions. I don’t know if any amount of practicing will be able to seperate the two. What if that’s what dad realized? That training wasn’t ever going to be enough, and that-” 

“Wrong.” 

Five stares at Grace. “What?” 

“I was there. Your father had neither the patience nor the talent to nurture Vanyas powers into being. Vanya was only four years old back then, Five. Children throw tantrums, that is a norm of growing up and developing. Reginald simply saw someone who could, if pushed too far, do him real harm. He was scared because there was finally someone who could retaliate against his abuse. But you are _not_ your father. You love those children. I know that.” Grace holds his gaze steady. “And I trust that you’ll always do right by them.” 

Five sits up quickly, clears his throat roughly and blinks too many times. He’s got something in his eye. That’s all that is. 

_He is not his father_. 

He really needed to hear those words. Five hadn’t realized just how much, though, not until now. 

“Thanks mom.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter five actually S H A R E S with the rest of the class 
> 
> and shit. goes. down. 
> 
> thank you guys for continuing to read/comment i seriously appreciate it so much!!! :) i have the last few chapters mapped out already, and an idea brewing for a sequel bc i cannot help myself......... lol hopefully you guys enjoy!


	22. Chapter 22

Something is off. 

Is it hunger? 

Five has gotten so accustomed to ignoring hunger pangs in the past, it’s hard to tell now, if he’s being honest with himself. But there’s a stitch in his side that won’t go away. He hunches over in his bed at about a half past five in the morning, willing the pain to subside. 

It doesn’t. 

He limps downstairs into the kitchen and mindlessly flips the light switch, surprised when the lights actually come on. “Huh.” The PSEG workers must have finally come around to their block, he thinks, pleased. 

Now that they have electricity again Five decides to make himself toast for breakfast. He slathers the bread in peanut butter and leans against the counter while he chews on the half burnt slice as though eating were a chore. 

Five can’t help but ruminate back to his decision last night and what that means for today; he’s going to call a family meeting. Even though he hasn’t changed his mind, he is admittedly quite nervous about it. Grace had promised she’d be there for him, happily encouraging him to share with the others, for both theirs and his sake. 

And he plans to do just that. 

Today. Maybe after breakfast. Or lunch. Or...tonight? 

The bread lands heavy like lead, in the pit of his belly, and that irritating pain biting at his side persists. 

He spends most of the morning pacing the house, trying to take his mind off of what is to come. 

And it’s not until well after lunch in the late afternoon-nearly dinner time now-that Five calls a family meeting, at long last. 

He hesitates for so long once everyone has gathered that Allison huffs impatiently, folding her arms across her chest. “Well?” 

Grace tuts. “Patience, please.” 

Five wipes his sweaty palms against his dress pants and finally commits himself to blurting it out. “The person at the diner the other night was my former employer. The Handler; that’s what everyone calls her.” 

The room immediately goes so quiet that if a pin dropped Five is sure he’d be able to hear it when it landed; the children are suddenly all ears, leaning forward attentively. He’s not entirely certain as to what they had been expecting from this impromptu meeting, but this was definitely not on that list, he can tell. 

“I used to work for this place,” he continues. “The Temps Commission. My job-along with several other agents-was to make corrections in the timeline. We made sure anomalies were taken care of if any arose.” Five explains, trying his best to be as vague as possible. 

But of course, the children have queries. 

Luther raises his hand. 

Five arches a brow but doesn’t comment on the act. “Luther?” 

“Does this mean there are others like you? Who can time travel?” he awes. 

Five shrugs. “Not exactly like me, no. But they _can_ time travel. The Temps Commission assigns their active field agents this machine shaped like a suitcase, which is how they’re able to achieve such accurate time travel. It’s kind of ridiculous, how easily breakable they are, but a remarkably advanced piece of technology nonetheless.” he recognizes.

“So in the future they really discover time travel?” Vanya stares at him with wide eyed wonder. 

Five purses his lips. “Not in our lifetime, but eventually, I suppose. I was recruited by The Handler a couple of years ago, to join the Temps Commission. They work outside of time and space-it’s hard to explain-” 

“Why did the lady with the lame codename travel back here?” Allison frowns. “Does she-does she want you to go _back_ to work for them?” 

“She believes I broke my contract with the Commission, when technically I found a loophole which let me terminate said contract-but The Handler doesn’t really see it that way. Honestly, I’m not sure what she wants from me.” he admits. “For the time being she’s simply been observing, from what I can tell. I don’t know what her exact orders are or what it is she’s even waiting for.” he shrugs. “At the moment it seems we’re at a standstill.” Five sighs, scratching at the back of his head. 

The room is silent as the children contemplate this new information. 

“Soooo,” Klaus blows raspberries. “That’s some _wild_ shit. I was thinking salty ex girlfriend, but evil, creepy stalker ex boss? God, Five, your life is weird even for a former Umbrella Academy kid, you know that, right?” 

Five scoffs half heartedly. “Unfortunately.” 

Allison can’t help scrutinizing him. “Not that I’m complaining, but what made you change your mind? About telling us, I mean. You were so adamant before.” 

Five stares at her, at the expression of mistrust on her face, and his chest aches. 

_“We’re done.”_ The truth of the matter is that he couldn’t unhear those words. They just kept ringing in his ears. And they had brought a real panic to life inside of him. 

The truth is that he can’t bear to lose any of them. Not again. And not like this. Not when he has the power this time to change the circumstance. 

But what he tells them instead, is: “I talked to mom last night and I guess the stuff she said must have knocked some sense into me. Look, I’ve never been _great_ at sharing.” he says, an understatement if there ever was one. “And if I’m being honest? A part of me still thinks ‘why should my past matter at all? I’m here now, _that’s_ what should matter…’” Five mindlessly kneads at the irritation against his side. “But I know that’s not fair to any of you. I’m hoping that by...opening up, or whatever you want to call this, I can show you guys that I-well, that I _trust_ you. All of you. Implicitly.” 

Luther raises his hand again. 

Five motions for him to speak freely. 

“Are we allowed to ask questions?” 

Five concedes. “I don’t see why not. I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities.” 

“How far into the future did you travel, exactly?” 

“Roughly about two decades.” He shouldn’t have eaten breakfast this morning, he thinks, as his stomach does a somersault. 

Diego jumps in with an excited, “What is the future me like? Am I awesome?” 

Pain tugs at Fives’ side but he ignores it. “I never got the chance to meet any of you.” 

Diego pouts, disappointed. 

“I caught sight of some...scars.” Allison hedges, “A while ago, actually, but I wasn’t sure how to ask…” 

He has so many, he’s not quite sure which ones she might have seen. Some were from the apocalypse. But the more recent ones were from the time he spent working for the Temps Commission. Five mulls over how to answer. “Sometimes missions got a little rough. Anomalies weren’t always easy to correct and time traveling using the suitcase often puts a strain on the users body.” 

“Hey,” Klaus wonders out loud. “If you started working for this weird time traveling agency what-two years ago?-does that mean you had like, immediate access to the suitcase? Why didn’t you use it to come back earlier?” 

“I didn’t use the suitcase to come back here.” Five replies. “It would have been too conspicuous and I would have been caught before I could even finish entering my exact coordinates.” 

“Does that mean you traveled back in time using your powers?” Luther stares at him, unblinking. “Dad said that was impossible.” 

“ _Nearly_ impossible, but not entirely.” Five sighs. “The old man had a point, though. It took me nearly twenty years to figure it out, after all.” 

“Why didn’t you come back before-” Klaus pauses, looking down at the floor. “Before _Ben_.” he mutters. 

Five gulps. “I tried. Traveling forward in time is one thing, but backwards is a whole other animal. One I haven’t exactly mastered quite yet, unfortunately.” 

Klaus nods solemnly. 

Vanya stands up suddenly, gasping. “At the diner!” she remembers. “That lady-The Handler-she said something about-about you messing up your ‘pep talk’, about how it ends up in extinction? What did she mean by that?” 

Five blinks, thinking it over for a moment. He thinks back to that night and tries to remember the words she’d uttered in such delighted mockery. 

_“I was really hoping this was the timeline where you screwed this pep talk of yours so monumentally it ended in the extinction of life on Earth itself. And I wanted a front row seat to that. Unfortunately, it's not. Perhaps next time."_

“ _Shit_.” Five mutters. How had he not caught on to that before? “She was bluffing.” 

“What?” 

Five shakes his head. “This whole time I thought she was here under orders of the Commission head, but I think she’s actually gone rogue.” 

“It looks like you’re having a whole epiphany over there, which is great, but I think we’d all like to be in on it, too, if you wouldn’t mind?” Allison furrows her brows. 

“If the Handler were working with the Temps Commission she wouldn’t have to play a guessing game about which timeline we were in-she would just _know_ !” Five paces the room, “Which means she’s on her own.” He should have taken the opportunity and slit her throat at the diner that night. _Fuck_. 

“I’m still lost.” Diego tilts his head. “If she’s not tryna’ recruit you, then what’s her deal?” 

“That’s the question.” Five hums. “She’s always been-” he stops pacing and bends at the waist, his face scrunching up in pain. 

“Five?” 

He tries to shake it off but the pain from earlier is not only insistent, it’s increased to _intolerable_ levels. Five sinks down to his knees and takes hold of the small trash bin next to the couch. He upchucks into it, nearly choking on his own vomit. There are slivers of dark red when he looks down at the mess he’s made.

“Oh _sh-shit_.” Diego winces. 

Five wipes his mouth against his sleeve and spits into the bin one last time to clear the taste of blood from his mouth. 

“ _That_ is a sign of internal bleeding.” Grace informs him urgently, one hand on his shoulder. “We should hurry you to the infirmary right now.” 

Five doesn’t bother arguing; there is no point in fighting Grace about it, for once. The pain is becoming unbearable as the seconds tick by and he knows she’s right. 

“How?!” Allison helps Grace lift Five up off the floor, frantic as she watches him struggle to stand on his own. “He was fine earlier!” 

“I will have to do an ultrasound to be sure, but if I am correct this may have been caused by the blunt force trauma inflicted when he hit the wall-” 

Diego glares at Vanya, “So _you_ did this!” 

Vanya backs away, horrified at the implication. “I did?” she shakes her head, eyes wide. “I _did…_ ” 

“Cut it out! Now’s not the time!” Allison yells at Diego. 

“What?! I’m right! This is Vanya’s fault! And Luther agrees with me!” 

Allison turns to Luther. “Is that true?” 

Luther looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. “I only mentioned that her powers are dangerous, I didn’t mean-” 

“Are you seriously backing down right now?” Diego scoffs. “Real leader qualities you got there, Number One.” 

Five lets out a small, involuntary moan when Grace starts to move him and the children grow quiet, the tension in the room thick. 

They follow the pair all the way to the infirmary and though they want to, not a single one of them complains when Grace makes them wait outside in the corridor. 

The ultrasound confirms her diagnosis. Grace frowns severely when she sees the ugly deep purple and green bruise running right along Fives’ side and rib cage. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” 

Five peers up at her but Grace can tell he’s not all there, the pain and blood loss beginning to overwhelm him. “Didn’t know it was that bad.” The pain hadn’t gotten _really_ bad until today and the dizziness and nausea, he had attributed to the head wound, truth be told. 

“I need to prep you for surgery.” 

“Can the kids come in first? I’ll be quick.” he promises, when it looks like she might say no. 

Grace sighs. “I do need to retrieve Pogo. So you will have a few minutes with the children before we need to get started.” 

*****************************************

“Where’s Vee?” Five wraps an arm around his midsection and sits up, unsteady. 

“In her room,” Allison frowns worriedly. “I’m sure she’s feeling awful about all this.” 

Diego rolls his eyes. “Well she should.” 

“ _Hey_ ,” Five gives him a stern look. “Enough. It was an accident. You need to give Vanya a break-you know she would never purposely hurt any of us.” 

Luther chews on his bottom lip. “But she did. And you’re hurt so _bad_ . I’m not saying she did it on purpose or anything,” he’s quick to clarify. “I’m just saying, her powers are unstable. She’s already hurt you and mom _and_ Diego. Maybe Dad was right-” 

“Dad had a stick up his ass and control issues.” Klaus interrupts, uncharacteristically angry. “Vanya’s had like a _day_ of practice-you both need to chill the fuck out and back off.” 

Five sighs. “Look, we _will_ talk more about everyone's concerns when I get out of surgery. I swear. But I need everyone to keep a level head until then.” 

At the mention of surgery the others begin to fidget. Diego grows serious. “You’ll be ok, right? Mom will fix you?” 

Five nods. “Of course. You guys don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine.” 

Grace and Pogo enter the infirmary then and she clears the room quickly. Or tries to, at least. 

Allison stays behind even after the door has closed on her brothers. 

“Allison?” Grace tilts her head. “We really need to begin the surgery.” 

“I know, I’m sorry, I just…” Allison marches the few feet to the operating table and throws her arms around Five, pressing her face into the crook between his neck and shoulder for a handful of seconds before pulling away. “I heard a rumor you’re going to be alright.” her lips wobble with a determination not to cry. 

Five doesn’t know quite what to do with any of this, and so he’s a touch guilty at how grateful he is when Grace puts her hands on Allisons’ shoulders and gently leads her out of the room. 

**************************************

  
  


“I should have said something.” Five tells Pogo, as the primate helps him into a gown. 

“Perhaps.” 

Grace returns, now donning a pair of surgical gloves and holding up a face mask. “Alright. I’m going to need you to count down from one hundred-” 

Five groans, the pain in his stomach getting worse. “You’re not putting me under.” 

Pogo and Grace trade a look. “I cannot do an exploratory laparotomy on you while you are still in a state of consciousness, Five.” She reasons.

“Can’t or won’t?” 

Grace glowers at him. “ _Won’t_. It would be cruel.” 

Five turns to Pogo. “Then you do it.” 

Pogo looks taken aback. “Excuse me?” 

“You heard me. I know you’re not squeamish over these things.” 

Pogo shakes his head. “You’re still as stubborn as you were back then, aren’t you?” 

Five simply stares at him. 

“Very well. Grace, scalpel please.” Pogo holds out a hand. 

For a moment it looks as if Grace is about to toss the tools from the tray and stomp out of the infirmary, but it passes. She hands Pogo the instrument, her face stoic, her movements stiff. 

It’s a fairly wide incision, right across his abdomen, and though Pogo is quick and precise with the cut, Five still tenses, gritting his teeth against the pain that blossoms and spreads all over. 

“We could still give you anesthesia-even just a local one.” Pogo reminds him as he pokes and prods inside of the opening he’s made, looking for the source of the bleed. 

Five huffs out an agonized, “ _No_.” Even the local anesthesia is too strong-he might be awake, sure, but he wouldn’t be able to move or even have a single coherent thought, it would be almost as bad as if he were unconscious. 

And so for hours he bears the intense pain; it’s only when both his heart rate and blood pressure have risen to alarming levels that Grace insists again on at the very least a decent painkiller. 

“Five, _please_.” she takes hold of his hand and squeezes tightly. His hands are clammy and quivering.

Five blinks the sweat out of his eyes, his breathing an awful ragged rasping. “W-Will it mess me up?” 

“You will be conscious and hopefully in less pain.” Grace furrows her brow, her other hand going up to brush his bangs from his forehead. She does not understand this perverseness in Five. “Please let me do this for you.” 

Maybe it’s the pleading look in her eyes or hell, maybe it’s the fact that absolutely every single one of his nerves is on _fire_ as Pogo digs around inside of him-maybe it’s both-but something in Five finally relents. 

Grace slowly injects the opioid into his IV bag and watches the heart monitor. It takes a while but eventually his vitals stabilize once more. 

The morphine, while not entirely effective in alleviating the pain, manages to relax Fives’ muscles enough that he can try and even out his breathing for the remainder of the surgery. 

************************************

By the time Pogo has sutured up the sight of the incision and cleaned everything up, Five is exhausted and weak, trembling minutely. 

“The children will want to know how you’ve fared, I’m sure.” Pogo says. “I’ll go and let them all know that the operation was a success.” 

Five nods feebly. 

Grace easily transfers him from the operating table onto the transport gurney in the meanwhile. She plans to move him into the west wing of the mansion, where he can rest comfortably and recoup for the next forty eight hours. She vows not to let him lift a single finger until he’s fully healed. 

“I’m fine, you know. It wasn’t that bad.” Five tells her, noting her atypical silence. 

Grace pauses and looks him in the eye, her face hardening. “For _you_ , maybe.” 

Surprised by the ire in her tone, Five begins to say something in his defense, only to be interrupted by Allison and Diego who push past Pogo into the infirmary. He’s pretty sure the two must have stayed just outside of that door waiting for him this whole time. 

Allison rushes to Fives’ side, her relief palpable. “I didn’t think you’d be awake so soon after.” She looks as though a part of her wants to cling on and never let go, but stubbornly she stops herself at the last possible moment, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. “Are you alright? You look really pale.” 

“I’m ok.” Five attempts to sit up to no avail; the exertion causes immediate agony to flare across his belly. He curses under his breath. 

Grace taps a vial with her thumb and forefinger. “I’m giving you another dose of morphine for the pain.” 

Five shakes his head. “I don’t-” 

“It will not render you unconscious.” Grace interrupts bluntly. 

He can tell she’s mad at him. As to the why of it all, however, he’s not quite sure and he doesn’t want to ask, not with the children in the room listening.

“Fine.” he concedes, albeit haltingly. “But not too much.” He knows one of the side effects is drowsiness, and there’s no way he can afford to fall into a drug induced sleep with The Handler nearby. The morphine does it’s job, easing his pain back to a manageable throbbing. 

“Where are you taking him?” Diego asks, making to tag along when Grace begins to wheel Five out of the room. 

“He needs to recover. I think a room closer to the infirmary would be best for the time being. Just in case any complications arise.” 

Allison chews on her lip. “Complications?” 

“I don’t foresee any, barring undue stress.” Grace assures her, thanking Diego with a soft smile when he rushes ahead to open the door for her. 

“Mom’s just a worrywart, m’fine.” Five slurs, blinking owlishly. The morphine is _more_ than working right now, he notes sluggishly. 

Allison doesn’t look the least bit reassured. She follows Grace and Diego into the room and helps them set up. 

Five is so loopy by the time they’re finished that when Grace scoops him up off the gurney and lays him onto the bed he gives her a wonky smile and a thumbs up. 

Grace doesn’t react, working instead to adjust the IV and making sure the pulse oximeter is placed correctly. Five sits up and shakes the oximeter off with a frown. “It’s too noisy.” he whines. 

Allison can’t help the little snort that escapes her when she witnesses the childish act. She’s never seen Five like this. She’s not sure what ‘like this’ even is, really. 

Grace places the oximeter back on Fives’ index finger and glares at him when he tries to take it off again. “The noise is there to alert me to your vitals. This stays _on_.” 

Five pouts petulantly. “I don’t like it.” 

Allison and Diego share a laugh at the indignant look on his face. “Dude, are you _high_ right now?” Diego stares at Five with unfettered glee. 

Five shakes his head, seemingly appalled. “Drugs are _bad_ .” he says, trying to sound serious, but failing terribly. God, _is_ he high? He knew that a second dose of morphine wouldn’t do him any good. The pain is admittedly gone, though, but at the cost of his good sense. “Where’s all my other little ducklings?” he wonders out loud, flopping down onto the mattress with an oomph. 

“Your little what now?” Allison isn’t even trying to stifle her laughter anymore. “Oh my God, you totally are high, aren’t you?” 

  
“It’s moms’ fault.” Five huffs. 

Grace doesn’t respond to that. “It is nearly two in the morning now. Well past all of your bedtimes.” she tells the children. “And your brother needs his rest.” 

Allison and Diego wave bye to Five before being escorted out of the room. Five watches them go through a bleary gaze. When Grace walks back in Five is half asleep but stubbornly fighting its pull. 

“The others were asleep already.” Grace tells him as she tucks him in. 

Five blinks at her. He can’t remember the last time he was tucked into bed. “Are you still mad at me?” 

“I am.” 

“Why?” 

Grace doesn’t answer. She checks his vitals one last time. “We’ll talk more in the morning; you should be more lucid by then.” When she reaches the door Grace turns around, just slightly. “Goodnight Five.” 

And then he’s left alone in a dark and unfamiliar room and his eyes begin to droop shut, despite himself. 

*************************************

It’s a little past four in the morning when Five sits up abruptly, his chest heaving. 

Something is off. 

In his muddled half drugged, half asleep and injured state it’s difficult to theorize what, exactly, the problem is. 

He throws off his covers and yanks out the IV and the oximeter before blinking into the lit hallway. Five collapses against the wall, weak and disoriented. “Shit.” 

The lights flicker twice and he’s enveloped back into darkness.

“Well look who’s decided to join the fun.” 

Five twists around, holding himself up by sheer force of will alone. “What the fuck are you doing here?” 

The Handler grins her usual cat eats canary bird grin. “I heard from the grapevine you were a little under the weather. What? An old friend can’t stop by and wish you well?” 

Now that he knows she’s working alone he can end her without fear of retribution. He smirks, hands glowing a faint hue of blue. 

“Oooh, I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.” The Handler advises. “Wouldn’t want your-hmm, what was it that you called them again?-your little _ducklings_ to come to any harm, now would you?” 

Five freezes. She’s bluffing, he reminds himself. The Commission probably doesn’t even know she’s here right now. 

From upstairs comes a scream that makes Fives’ blood curdle. 

_Vanya_. 

Five blinks into her room, leaving The Handler to rant all by herself, only to be shocked into submission by a prod. He falls to the floor on his knees, gasping for air. There are ten, twelve, no-thirteen field agents surrounding him. One of them has Vanya, she struggles in his grasp, calling Fives name in a panic until he knocks her out with chloroform and suddenly she’s limp as a ragdoll in his arms. 

Five sees red. 

He blinks directly behind the agent and snaps his neck within the span of a millisecond. Another agent comes up on his left and tries to stick him with the electric prod again, but Five takes hold of the weapon and yanks it forward, knocking the agent off balance. He uses the prod to electrocute the agent trying to come up behind him and the other end he impales inside the skull of a fourth. 

Five is in the middle of stabbing an eigth agent with his own weapon when the door swings open and The Handler appears. She’s got Allison. Her mouth is covered in duct tape and her hands are tied together. The Handler has a gun pressed up against the side of her head and her finger is on the trigger. 

“The safety is off, in case you’re wondering.” She chuckles. “And as you well know, I do tend to get a tiny bit trigger happy in these situations. How fast do you really think you can teleport over to me before my finger slips?” she mocks. 

Five drops the dismembered body onto the floor. There must be more agents in the mansion. The noise would have alerted the kids and he knows for sure Luther and Diego would have come running at the first sign of trouble. He gulps. “I’ll come without a fight. Just let her go.” 

The Handler smiles pleasantly. “I thought you’d see it my way.” 

The remaining agents tackle Five, shocking him with their prods. One of them gets too close to his incision and Fives’ vision whites out momentarily. 

***********************************************************

By the time he comes to his hands and forearms are trapped in a thick, heavy metal contraption and he’s being loaded into the back of a vehicle. Next to him, an unconscious Vanya lays, also wearing the same cuffs. Five tries to sit up, only to be kicked by one of the agents. “Let her go!” he screams. He can’t see The Handler but he knows she must be in the vicinity. She does so love to watch, after all. “I said I’d come willingly, but you need to let her go!” 

The Handler appears at the doors of the van and scoffs. “Oh honey, did you really think you’re the only one I was here for?” 

Five glares daggers at the woman and tries to blink. The second he tries, however, the cuffs send a bolt of electricity through him so great that he nearly bites his tongue off. 

The Handler laughs. “You underestimate me, Five.” she turns to the rest of the agents waiting just outside of their transportation. “Kill the rest of the children inside. I don’t want any survivors, understood?” 

The agents nod at the new orders and turn back to the house. 

Five can barely lift his head at this point. “Stop.” he begs, with what little breath he has in his lungs. “ _Please_ , I-” 

The Handler makes a face. Disgust. “This is the part of you I’ve always detested. This so-called ‘love’ you feel for your family? It’s a weakness and today we’re going to get rid of that. Once and for all." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for ur patience and ur kind/encouraging comments, they mean the world to me! I finally have some time to write this week so hopefully the next chapter doesn't take nearly as long! <3


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: The Handler is EXTRA uncomfortably creepy (during her second appearance) & there is a lot of violence in this chapter!

“You know, sometimes I think back to that trifling little anomaly that happened to pop up in the timeline-right after Earth went to hell in a handbasket.” The Handler laughs. “You were so incredibly small. But we were all so intrigued. The head at the time, he didn’t bother with you. Some of us complained. We thought he should send a Temp agent to end your miserable existence. But he was so sure you would die in that wasteland within a month, tops.” She shakes her head, rolling her eyes heavenward. 

Five is barely awake in his cage, laid out on the cold cement, unmoving. He doesn’t have the energy to respond. Though he knows she doesn’t mind the lack of dialogue on his part. The Handler  _ loves  _ to monologue. Lives for it, probably. 

“But of course you survived.  _ Thrived _ , even. All that mess and for you to end up like this? Pitiful, Number Five. I’m disappointed.” 

He wants to tell her to join the club, but when he opens his mouth all that comes out is a rough wet cough. It rattles inside of his chest and makes him curl inward. 

The Handler sneers. “Let’s see how my agents are doing, shall we?” she holds her radio up to the bars, letting it crackle to life. “Report. Did you manage to exterminate the rest of the children?” 

There’s a moment of hesitance. “This is Litto reporting in. Targets have been eliminated. We are en route to HQ now.” 

“Did you hear that?” The Handler mocks, tapping the cage lightly when Five doesn’t stir. 

There’s a puddle of blood beneath him, growing steadily. 

**********************************************

Klaus is smoking up on the roof when the cacophony begins. 

He watches, frozen in place, as Five and Vanya are dragged, helpless, into a giant black van parked in the middle of their courtyard. 

There’s a woman standing near the opening; she gives orders to kill easily, as if she were ordering a salad for lunch. “I don’t want any survivors, understood?” 

The cigarette butt has fizzled out into nothing in his hand, burning his finger tips. The doors close and the vehicle roars to life and within minutes it’s gone, only the tail lights are visible in the distance, and then even that Klaus can no longer see as it disappears. 

“Klaus!” 

Klaus jumps, startled out of his stupor. “Jesus Ben, wear a bell!” he hisses. 

Ben glares at him. “Everyone’s under attack inside, you need to go, now!” 

“Go and do what, exactly? Luther’s got super strength, Diego’s Mcstabby and Allison can tell em all to fuck off. I’d just be in the way!” 

Ben stomps his foot. “So you’re just gonna’ stand here and do nothing?!” 

Klaus grimaces. “Ugh, fine, just don’t look at me with those disappointed puppy eyes anymore! And FYI, if I die I’m gonna’ haunt your ass for the rest of our afterlives!” 

He tip toes down into the hallway; he’s trying to be quiet, but a gasp escapes Kalus when he spots Allison propped up against the wall, mouth and hands taped, some woman in a hideous blue suit and a ridiculous bunny rabbit halloween mask yanking her up by her hair. “Sorry, sweetheart,” She mutters in a thick Southern drawl, and she actually does sound sorry as she draws her pistol and aims. “Orders are orders.” 

Klaus’ heart stutters and stalls in his chest and he takes one big deep breath before tossing himself bodily towards the woman with every bit of strength he has and knocking her off her feet and to the side. 

While the Commission agent is disoriented on the floor Klaus frantically undoes the tape across his sisters mouth, his hands shaking. “Hurry, hurry!” Allison shoves her hands into his face so that he can free them from their binds, her adrenaline sky rocketing as the woman gathers her barings behind them. 

She stands tall over the teens and cocks her weapon. 

Allison turns to her and shouts. “I heard a rumor you dropped your gun!” 

The agent tilts her head, gun remaining steady. “Ah,” she says, “Your powers don’t work on any of us, kid.” She taps at her ear and in it Allison sees the same little ear buds The Handler had shown off at the diner that night. “You think we’d come in unprepared? We’re professionals, ya’ know-” The agent pauses, her eyes wide as she struggles to get the words out. She gags-or tries to-but there’s a knife protruding from her jugular and blood quickly pools inside of her mouth. She gurgles, choking, and collapses forward into a heap on the floor. 

Twenty feet behind her, at the very end of the hall, Diego is standing, panting and holding an approximate of no less than ten knives. “We need to find the others.” 

Klaus helps Allison stand and the three of them come together in the middle of the hall. “They took Five and Vanya.” 

“They did what?!” Diego curses. 

Klaus nods. “I was on the roof. Some lady in a dress had her people shove them into a van in the courtyard. They’re long gone.” 

They hear a crash somewhere downstairs and Allison gasps. “Luther!” 

**************************************

They find Luther in the middle of a brawl in the kitchen. Diego joins the fray without a hint of hesitance, screaming a little war cry (essentially giving away any element of surprise he may have had) and throwing knives left and right. 

The table and several chairs have been overturned, the sink has been ripped out of its place-presumably by Luther himself-and water is leaking everywhere, making the floor a slippery mess.

Allison wants to help, of course. She didn’t take ten years of judo for nothing, after all, but the agents are all armed with guns and axes, knives and throwing stars, and though she hates to admit it, without her powers, she feels helpless. She has to assume (correctly) that the majority of the agents The Handler has sicced on them are also wearing those odd ear buds which would make them all impervious to her rumors. 

She would only be in the way. Klaus feels the same way, frozen at the door frame, ducking for cover with her when an agent spots them there. 

He approaches the children with shocking speed, crazed as he swings his axe down on them. Allison and Klaus hold each other, unable to do much else, fully expecting to be sliced meat within seconds. 

Except the blow never lands. 

When they look up Grace is there, her pastel pink skirt all they can see. She shields them valiantly, her forearm taking the brunt of the attack. It splits in two, exposing her circuitry. She roughly yanks the axe from her own limb and impales the agent with his own weapon. 

“Stay behind me.” 

Four more agents drop into the corridor they’re huddled in. The one in a rusty bloody clown mask swings his spiked metal club around ominously. “Fuck off blondie, we’re only here for the kiddies.” 

Grace smiles, unnervingly pleasant. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” 

“Your funeral.” And without further warning the spikes come barreling towards her face. She grabs the spherical projectile in the air and forces it in the opposite direction with inhuman strength, lodging it into the side of the mans cranium. 

Which is, of course, when the others realize that Grace is perhaps, not so defenseless as she appears. 

****************************************

Luther is breathing heavy, his endurance weaning as more and more agents seem to materialize out of nowhere. Diego is in the same unfortunate boat-beyond exhausted and running out of both knives and his patience for this shit. 

Back to back, the two brothers find some semblance of comfort in the contact, however brief, surrounded as they are at the moment. 

“This is kind of a badass way of going out.” Diego huffs out, trying to find a positive, despite the dire situation they find themselves in. 

Luther lets out a snort, though he can appreciate the attempt at levity. “Giving up already? That’s not like you.” he ducks another attack and swings back, but he’s tired and he’s taken a lot of hits and so he misses entirely. 

The agent rears back his titanium bat and Luther’s too slow to dodge this time. Diego throws himself back into Luther and they stumble, falling against the cabinets, just in time for Pogo to make his entrance. 

Pogo has never been anything close to resembling your usual run of the mil primate-hell, Diego’s never seen him so much as eat a banana, for fear of falling into the stereotype-but in that moment, it’s as though the children are seeing an entirely different, entirely unhinged side of their long time caretaker and educator. 

Pogo lets out a barbaric sound and tears into the agent, and then into another and another and another, going wild with unrestrained animalistic rage, biting and clawing his way through their attackers. It’s simultaneously horrific and awesome. 

The last agent shoots several rounds into Pogo, hoping to God it’ll stop the massacre of his fellow agents, but it only serves to make him all the more angry as he turns and mauls the agent, even as he empties the last of his clip into Pogos’ chest in rapid fire. 

At long last it is quiet in the kitchen. 

Grace hobbles inside from just outside of the corridor, her face and the front of her pink dress painted a bright crimson red. Allison and Klaus are each holding onto one of her hands as if for dear life-it reminds Pogo of when they were still young enough to find comfort in such acts-it’s nice to see that a part of them still finds comfort in it. 

Grace turns to her boys, looking them over with a critical eye. There are bruises and cuts here and there and they look drained of all stamina, but they’re alive and it doesn’t seem as if there are any serious injuries. “Are you two alright?” 

Diego nods. “I sprained my wrist,” he admits, “But I’m fine otherwise.” 

Luther nods. “Just bruised. I’ll live.” He sighs. “If it weren’t for you, Pogo, we would have been-” 

As if on cue the primate collapses with a resounding thud on the already bloodied kitchen floor. 

“Pogo!” Diego shouts, kneeling down beside his prone body. 

Grace rolls Pogo over onto his back and frowns. “You’ve been shot.” she notes. “Several times.” He’s bleeding out. 

Pogo stares up at her through hazy liquid brown eyes. “Five...and Vanya...where are they?” he coughs out, chest heaving with exertion. 

“They were kidnapped.” Allison replies from above, absently. “Mom, Pogo...he’s-is he gonna-” she can’t finish the sentence. 

“Luther, do you think you can help me move Pogo into the infirmary?” Grace asks. 

Luther nods dutifully and they lift him on a count of three. 

Pogo groans. “Leave me.” he insists. “Need to go...save Five...Vanya.” He says. “No time.” 

“Shut up.” Diego glares at Pogo as they’re transporting his body. “You don’t get to die in like, the most heroic badass way when we haven’t even had the chance to forgive you for all the bullshit, you  _ jerk _ .” 

Klaus shares in the sentiment. He lags behind for a moment and turns to the empty spot beside him. “He’s right. I don’t want two ghosts with unresolved issues following me for the rest of eternity.” he sighs. “No offense.” 

Ben rolls his eyes. 

**********************************

“It will take me some time to stabilize Pogo.” Grace tells the children as they set him down on the same table that not too long ago Five had occupied. “I need you all to patch one another up in the meantime and we will regroup and figure out a way to rescue your brother and sister. Until then, nobody makes a move, understood?” 

The children nod and are quickly sent away while Grace prepares to dig bullets out of her oldest companion. 

***********************************

Luther wraps Diego’s wrist as Klaus cleans and bandages a long, lazily bleeding cut on the side of Allison’s cheek. 

They take turns looking over one another and doing what needs to be done in tense silence until a sound stirs them all into action. 

The children run into the kitchen where an agent, half crushed under the sink, is still alive (barely) and trying to reach for his communication device. Diego removes one of his knives from a dead agents’ eyeball and storms over to the man, ready to stab him, when Allison stops him. 

“We can use him.” She says, walking and kneeling next to his body. The agent panics when he realizes he’s surrounded, tries to scurry back, to no avail. He’s trapped. Allison reaches over and removes his stupid mask-a rat with comically large teeth-and underneath is a laughably regular looking human. She yanks the buds out of his ears and leans in close. “I heard a rumor you told us exactly where your boss took Five and Vanya.” 

The agents’ eyes swirl for a moment before robotically, he gives them the location; an abandoned underground subway tunnel in the depths of Brooklyn, New York. 

The comm in his pocket makes a sound and then The Handlers voice-tinnie on the radio and yet somehow just as menacing as when she had a gun to Allisons’ head in Vanya’s bedroom-asking for a status report.

Allison grabs the device and rumors the agent into telling The Handler everything went according to plan. “Tell her your team is on their way over there.” 

“This is Litto reporting in. Targets have been eliminated. We are en route to HQ now.” 

************************************

“We should wait for mom.” Diego says. “She said to wait.” 

“Pogo was right. There’s no time. And no telling what the hell that crazy bitch and her cronies are planning to do with Five and Vanya while we sit here on our asses doing nothing!” Allison shakes her head. “I’m going.” 

Luther grimaces. “Me too.” He puts on his mask and hands Allison hers. 

Diego looks back towards the infirmary and bites his lip. “We should at least leave a note.” 

“You do that.” Allison puts on her mask and then hands Klaus one. 

Klaus sighs. “Y'all know how much I hate to be left out.” he puts his on too and hands the last one to Diego, who hesitates but eventually places it on, as well. He scribbles the direction down on a piece of floral notepad paper and leaves it at the door for Grace to find. He hopes she’s not too upset…. 

“Alright, let’s go. We’ve wasted enough time.” 

They take the car and Klaus asks Luther when the hell it was he learned how to drive when he takes the wheel. 

“I didn’t.” 

“Well shit.” 

**********************************

Five wakes up, bare chested, on a cold metal table, his hands and forearms still entrapped within the thick, plated cuffs. They’re up above his head, secured tightly by a chain to the table. There’s a woman in scrubs suturing up the incision across his belly. He stares at her impassively. 

The doctor (he assumes) stops what she’s doing and looks over to the corner of the room, as if asking for permission to continue. 

“Go on. He can’t hurt you in his current state.” The Handler allows. 

Five tries to turn to look at her but the chain doesn’t let him have much wiggle room. “What are you doing?” 

The Handler steps into view. “You were bleeding out in your cell.” she tells him, looking irritated, as though he were doing so solely to inconvenience her. “Can’t have that, now can we? We need you in tip top shape.”

“Where’s Vanya? What did you do with her?” 

“So many questions,” she rolls her eyes. “Especially for someone who’s not exactly in the position to be so demanding.” The Handler gets closer, her heels click clacking across the concrete floor in a way that makes his heart rate go up. 

She rests her perfectly manicured nails atop his chest and he tenses at the touch. She drags them down slowly, inch by inch, until she reaches the incision. The doctor stops working and takes a step back. Five flinches hard when her fingers ghost over the open wound. “Oh, my sweet boy,” The Handler chuckles, “You always think the worst of me, don’t you? My intention has never been to cause you undue pain.” 

Her fingers reach down to the elastic waistband of his underwear and abruptly, she stops to gleefully watch the absolute  _ panic  _ on Fives’ face before simply trailing back up to boop at his nose teasingly. 

“Aw, this is cute. Are we a little nervous? I always manage to forget but you’re still a  _ virgin _ , aren’t you?” she laughs and then leans in so that she can whisper into his ear, her breath uncomfortably hot. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep that in mind.” she promises. 

The Handler backs away just in time to avoid getting her face chewed off when Five turns his head to lunge. “You can resume.” she tells the doctor, straightening the invisible lines in her dress and making for the exit. 

***********************************

The fact that they manage to make it all the way to Brooklyn is a miracle, with the way Luther drives. Although it did help that Allison was able to rumor a police officer into forgetting why he pulled over a car doing ninety on a fifty mile speed limit road, full of baby faced teenagers clearly not old enough to drive. 

“Man, you couldn’t have rumored that guy into giving us actual directions once we got here? How the hell are we supposed to find this secret underground subway?” Diego complains. 

They’re lost. 

Allison huffs. “I was going to, before you know, his organs kind of went and shut down-sorry I can’t revive the dead, knife boy.” 

“Hey, my knife throwing skills saved your sorry ass today, so suck it.” 

“God, you’re insufferable.” 

“Takes one to know one.” 

Luther sighs. “Enough with the fighting, it’s not getting us anywhere, we need to figure something out.” 

“I know where to go.” Klaus says, already walking in the opposite direction. 

The others follow, confused. “What do you mean you know?” Allison asks. 

“Call it a gut feeling.” He mutters. 

Diego scoffs, stopping in his tracks. “Those are never good.” 

Luther and Allison stop, too. “Yeah, Klaus, I don’t know about uh, following a hunch-we need a game plan here.” Luther says.

Klaus is tired of his siblings constantly doubting him, but he’s well aware he’s earned the title of least reputable reputation over the years in this family so he can’t exactly blame them, either. But right now they don’t have the luxury of wasting time. Steeling himself, he turns to them and says, “It’s a ghost.” he anxiously clenches his hands into fists, his nails digging into his palms. “They know the way, we just need to follow.” 

“You’re….using your powers?” Luther looks at him like he’s sprouted a second head. Klaus has done everything in his power to avoid using his powers for as long as he can remember. Though, after seeing those home videos with Vanya, Luther can’t say he wouldn’t be hesitant, as well. “Ok.” he nods resolutely. “Let’s go. Follow Klaus’ lead.” he tells the others. 

**********************************

Vanya opens her eyes slowly, in a daze. “Five?” she rasps. She sits up, her head spinning. 

Where is she? 

It’s dark and damp, wherever  _ this  _ is. 

Vanya manages to climb to her feet, despite the heavy cuffs weighing her down making her feel off balance. She stumbles to the exit. A stark white door, reinforced steel. It won’t budge a bit. Though it’s not like she was expecting it to. She’s not very strong. 

“Five?” she calls out. The last thing she remembers is the full blown fear in his eyes when he saw her in the arms of a stranger. And then nothing. “Five!” She screams out. Her voice doesn’t even echo in the room.

What the hell is going on? 

A tiny slot opens up at the very top of the door and Vanya scrambles towards it, begging for help. 

“Subject is awake.” Someone says, though they’re not speaking to her. They remind her of the times Reginald would take notes on tape, cold and distant. 

“Hello?” Vanya calls out, regardless. “I-I don’t belong here, I wanna go home.” she cries out, afraid. 

The slot closes again, the click of it final. And then she can’t hear a single thing being said outside the door, even though she’s sure there’s still someone out there. The room must be sound proof, she thinks. 

And for some odd reason, it feels familiar, in a way that makes dread tingle up her spine. 

**********************************

Luther tackles the first person they come across, covering her mouth with his hand and keeping her in place while she struggles fruitlessly, long enough for Allison to work her magic. 

“I heard a rumor we were all your new co-workers and you’re the office gossip.” 

The woman goes still and Luther lets her go, wondering if it worked.

“The coffee here is atrocious.” the woman tells them, completely unguarded, turning back to her weapons inspection. “And God, don’t even get me started on the health benefits.” she scoffs. “Benefits. What a joke. Anyway, my name’s Justine, do you guys want a tour of the place? We’re in the middle of a whole thing right now but the big honcho's got it all pretty much under wraps at this point, so it’s not like we’re doing anything right now. We’re just here in case Agent Five tries anything fishy.” she rolls her eyes. “The man is half dead-I really don’t see what The Handler thinks he’s gonna do in his condition.” she rambles on. 

“Agent Five?” Allison asks, her heart in her mouth. He’s still alive. 

Justine stares at her incredulously. “Don’t tell me you don’t know who Agent Number Five is? How new are you, exactly? He’s a legend around here, even rookies like me know about him.” 

“It’s our first day.” Luther lies nervously. 

“Ah, I see. Makes sense.” she says. “Well let me tell you about Agent Number Five. His story is nuts. I can hardly believe it, really. But I heard that when he was younger-just a kid, actually-he somehow managed to travel into the future. And I don’t mean like, the regular suitcase time traveling business, the way we all go about it. I mean like, using his  _ own  _ abilities. Apparently he’s got super powers. Though I’ve never personally seen them.” She whistles. “Anyway he fucks up and he ends up stuck in the-” 

“What the hell!?” Another agent walks in on the group and immediately raises his weapon. 

Justine takes her gun and aims it at the agent. “What the fuck is your problem?” 

The agent gives her a funny look. “What’s  _ my  _ problem? What the  _ hell  _ are you doing consorting with the enemy?” 

She tilts her head, furrowing her brows. “What on Earth are you on about? These are newbies. It’s their first day for shit’s sake. You’re freaking them out, Pat, put your damn gun down already.” 

Allison is glad she’s within such close proximity to Justine already, because it means she can easily whisper the words: “I heard a rumor you shot Pat.” without drawing too much unwanted attention to herself. 

Justine pulls the trigger and Pat’s brains splatter across the wall. The agent begins to come back to herself, slowly, her eyes widening as it dawns on her, what she’s done. “Pat?” 

Allison gulps. “I heard a rumor you told me where they’re keeping Five and Vanya.” 

Justine falls under her spell once again and complies. “Agent Five is being held in cell block eight, just down those stairs, two lefts and a right. I don’t know Vanyas’ location.” 

Allison frowns. “I heard a rumor you were suddenly very very sleepy.” 

The agent begins to yawn and rub at her eyes and within seconds she’s curled up on the floor, snoring away. 

“Good job.” Luther commends her, taking both the agents’ guns. He hands one to Allison and the other to Klaus. 

Allison nods, tucking it into her waistband. She doesn’t feel like she did such a good job. Watching Justine's face crumble after realizing she’d killed her co-worker-friend, even, maybe?-had made Allison sick to her stomach. She pushes the feeling down and away. Now’s not the time. 

Klaus isn’t in love with the whole gun thing, but he’s also not in love with the whole dying defenseless thing, either, given the circumstances, and so he takes the gun he’s given without any fuss. 

Surprisingly they encounter zero other agents on their way to Five’s cell. Luther is so sure that at the very least there will be guards they’ll need to subdue once they get there, but not a soul is standing watch. Instead there’s a white door, looking out of place amongst all the concrete dreary grey walls. 

**Cell Block 008**

“Everybody be on your toes.” Luther warns. The door is locked, of course, but that’s only a slight inconvenience to Luther, who’s got super strength enough to pry the door open by breaking the handle with just a twist on his wrist. 

Inside is a prison within a prison. It looks a lot like a bird cage, actually, round at the top with black bars on all sides. 

In the very center Five, naked except for an undergarment and a pair of cuffs that engulf both of his hands and his forearms, up to his elbows, is laid out, unconscious. 

“Five!” Allison half whispers. 

Luther doesn’t waste any time, twisting the bars between his bare hands to make an entrance big enough for them to enter. Diego crouches down beside Five and shakes his shoulder. “Wake up, c’mon, we gotta find Vanya and get outta here.” 

But Five doesn’t move, the only sign of life is the shallow rise and fall of his chest. 

“Shit.” Klaus pulls at his hair. “What now? And we still don’t know where Vanya is.” 

Luther scoops Five up off the cold floor. It’s not ideal; he’d rather have his hands free in case they need to fight, but it’s the only way they’re moving Five right now. “We need to move. Find somewhere to hide, find someone with higher clearance who can tell us where Vanya’s being kept.” 

**************************************

The underground subway station is a maze. One easy to get lost in. Which is exactly what the children end up doing. They go in what feel like circles before deciding to hide out in what resembles an old ticket booth. It’s dusty and filled with cobwebs, clearly it hasn’t been used in a good long while, which is perfect. 

“Now what?” Diego asks. 

Luther sets Five down and he slumps sideways against the wall where he’s propped. “I don’t know.” he admits, helpless. He’d been hoping Five would be awake and well enough to direct them to Vanya and then out of this hellhole. But Five hasn’t stirred once. 

“You think Casper the friendly ghost can find Vanya for us?” Diego asks Klaus. 

Klaus sighs. “Trust me, he’s been trying. This place is huge.” 

“Guess there’s no other choice except to wait.” Luther slides down onto the floor to sit. Allison does too, each of them seated on either side of Five. 

Klaus folds his arms over his chest and leans back, looking out past the dust smeared across the tiny windows in the booth. He could really use a cigarette right about now. 

Diego paces the small area. He knows it’s annoying, but he can’t help himself. 

“What do you guys think that lady meant when she said Five was a real legend?” Luther wonders out loud. 

Klaus shrugs. “I mean, she mentioned how he used his own powers to travel-that’s gotta be impressive to these people when they gotta use those weird suit case time machine thingies everyone keeps droning on about. Like, we’re all pretty used to Five teleporting and shit, sure, but to these randos he’s gotta be a total God or something.” he hypothesizes. 

“True.” Allison concedes. Justine also mentioned some other things, things Allison can’t be bothered to recall right this moment. But it definitely felt like there was something more to that story. 

***********************************

“You’re done already?” The Handler stops by to check up on Five-maybe poke a little fun at him-but the doctor is in there all by herself, taking notes. 

“Yes. The suturing should hold, so long as he doesn’t try anything too strenuous.” she reports. 

“Did you get the samples?” 

“I...did.” 

The Handler narrows her eyes at the doctor. “Why the hesitance?” 

The doctor rubs at her temples. “In order to draw the blood I needed I was forced to give the patient a sedative. He was extremely aggressive.” 

“I didn’t approve that.” The Handler snaps. “How long will he be out for?” 

The doctor gulps. “It was a pretty heavy sedative.” she admits. “It could be anywhere from three to five hours, depending on how his body breaks down the drug. And even then he won’t be entirely aware of his surroundings for a while. But we don’t need him to be awake in order to get more samples,” she insists, “It’s probably better this way.” 

The Handler glares at the doctor and watches as the woman carefully backs away, rightfully afraid. “The next time you decide to take the initiative without orders I’m going to need you to think twice.” 

“Of course ma’am, I’m sorry.” 

Angrily, The Handler leaves and stalks to Cell Block 008. 

She wonders if an electrical prod will wake Five from his drug induced sleep. What’s the point of torturing someone if they’re not awake for it? 

She stops dead in her tracks, the blood running cold in her veins. 

The door is  _ ajar _ . 

Slowly she kicks the door open all the way and makes her way inside, her gun drawn. The bars that once held Number Five are bent awkwardly and the cage holds only air now. 

Furious beyond belief, The Handler lets out an ear piercing scream. 

It reverberates against the walls, echoing loudly. 

*************************

“Ok, dumb question, but can you rumor Five into, ya know, waking up?” Klaus asks. “We’re sitting ducks here without him.” 

“I don’t really know,” Allison answers honestly. “I’ve never tried to rumor an unconscious person, but I suppose there’s no real harm in it?” It’s been nearly an hour now and the fact that no amount of jostling or prodding has worked to wake Five is concerning. She’s willing to try anything at this point. 

“Hold his eyes open for me.” When Luther obeys Allison leans in as close as she can and looks directly into those eyes, desperately willing this to work. Even a twitch would be assuring. “Ok,” she clears her throat. _“I heard a rumor you woke up.”_

Several moments pass and nothing happens. Much to everyone's tangible disappointment. 

Allison hangs her head. Of course her stupid powers never work when she really needs them to, she thinks bitterly. Not for the truly important things, at least. “Sorry guys.” 

“It’s ok, it was a long shot anyway.” Luther lets go of Fives eyes just as they turn an off shade of swirling blue and grey. 

They roll all the way to the back of Fives' head and he gasps, shuddering as he’s forced into consciousness in spite of the strong sedative still in his system wreaking havoc.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU GUYS FOR LIKING/READING/COMMENTING I APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH! TWO MORE CHAPTERS LEFT! i'm shook, this is the longest thing i've ever written, i'm happy it's been well received and i hope the sequel (aka the kids go to HIGH SCHOOL AND FIVE OFFICIALLY BECOMES A SOCCER MOM W A MINI VAN AND ALL lmao) gets even half as much love as this one has, ya'll are awesome, thank you :)


	24. Chapter 24

Five is just _barely_ standing upright and the children are disappointed to learn that he's unable to use his powers with the cuffs attached to his arms. "I need you to crack these open for me." He tells Luther, after a moment of contemplation. 

Admittedly he's not exactly running on all four cylinders at the moment. 

Fives' brain might as well be mush right now. If he thought the morphine was bad, whatever the fuck that quack doctor had injected him with in her lab is at least ten times as effective, if not more so. His body is screaming in agony, begging him to pass out in sweet sweet bliss, but Allisons' rumor is strong enough that even if he wanted to, there's no possible way he could find comfort in unconsciousness. 

Luther isn't sure if this is the right move; he doesn't have perfect control of his strength-not the way he'd like to, at least-and this feels a lot like trying to thread a string through a very thin needle on a shaking boat during a storm. 

"I don't know," he voices his concern out loud. "I might hurt you." 

Five closes his eyes for a handful of seconds. Words are hard right now and his thoughts are all a muddled mess. "Luther, I know you're scared, and I'm not gonna sugarcoat shit for you right now. We don't have that luxury. You might break both of my arms doing this. But it's a better alternative to the only other option we've got right now; which is that we sit here and we wait to die." 

He wishes desperately that this wasn't happening, because the look on Luthers' face tears him to absolute shreds, but there's just no other way. 

Steeling himself for what he's about to do, Luther sets his jaw and squares his shoulders back. "Ok, ok. I-I can do this." 

There's no key or pad lock on the cuffs or Five would let Diego try and pick at it until it opened in a less violent manner. Instead, Luther takes hold of the mechanism and begins-with all of his strength-to pull the damn thing apart, slowly, centimeter by centimeter, his thumbs making indents in the titanium. 

Five tries his hardest to remain stoic throughout, encouraging Luther with a soft, hummed, "That's it. Good job." even as the metal digs directly into his flesh. If he so much as lets out a single pained moan he knows it'll devastate Luther. 

After what feels like a lifetime Luther manages to tear the cuffs apart in two and the bottom pieces fall off with a loud and heavy clang onto the concrete beneath their feet. 

Five huffs out an involuntary breath. His left arm is a mangled bloody mess and the white of his bone is sticking out from his upper forearm in a most grotesque fashion. 

Diego nearly passes out at the sight; he has to turn away to quell his nausea. 

"Jesus fucking Christ." Allison mutters, already ripping off the sleeve of the black cotton sweater she's wearing. "We need to wrap that up, keep the bone in place." she says, mostly to herself. Five thinks she's in shock with the way she mechanically walks over and wraps the cloth around his broken arm, not quite looking him in the eye as she does so. 

Fives doesn't flinch when she tightens the makeshift bandage, knotting it neatly, even as it soaks immediately with blood. He's sweating though, breathing funny. 

Luther is frozen in place, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights, still holding onto the top parts of the cuffs in either hand. 

Five clears his throat before speaking again. "Thank you." he says. "You did really good, Luther." he assures him. If the situation weren't so dire or time sensitive, Five would sit them all down and make sure everyone was alright (because they're clearly not) but unfortunately that's not in the cards for the moment. "Alright, we need to find Vanya and then we need to find a way out of this nightmare." 

Klaus gulps. "So, I've got a ghost trying to find Vanya right now. The place is kind of massive, so it's gonna take him a while. And uh, I think we know the way back out-the car is parked like two blocks away on the surface streets." 

Five would ask questions, has a ton of them, in fact, like: What ghost? You're talking to ghosts? Since when? Are you ok? And what do you mean the car is parked two blocks away? Who drove you guys? Where's mom? Where's Pogo? How did you guys even know where to find me? And how did you manage to take me right from under The Handlers' nose like that? 

Honestly, he's equal parts impressed and concerned. 

But again, no time for any of that. 

Unfortunately. 

Five nods. "Alright, that's-that's good." He swallows. His tongue is numb from the drugs and his limbs are heavy as he's ever felt them. He's so under the influence of whatever sedative that doctor used that he still hasn't had the chance to fully grasp onto the fact that his siblings are all _alive, breathing, here_. 

He had been so sure that The Handler had gotten rid of them that he still hasn't even been able to process that!-much less this sudden turn of events. 

"We need to move." He says. "There aren't any cameras or security in this area of their headquarters but that's exactly why this is where they'll start looking the second The Handler realizes I've gone missing." 

As if to prove him right, in the distance, an alarm sounds, echoing all the way into the abandoned rails. 

"Shit." Diego curses. "Where do we go? We still don't know where Vanya is." 

Five grimaces. "I need to get you guys out of here, first. I'll go back for Vanya once you're all in the car." He needs them out of harms way; he can't concentrate when he's worrying himself over their safety. Hell, he can barely concentrate, period, given his current state. 

Allison snaps out of her shock induced stupor and stands her ground. " _Fuck_ that. We're staying and we're helping rescue Vanya. Plus, you need Klaus to tell you where she is, once his ghost figures out her location." she reasons. 

"We don't have time for this," Five begins. 

"Exactly," Allison cuts off whatever tirade he's about to go into with a sharp frown. "Quit arguing because there's no way we're leaving here without the both of you, and that's that. And if you take us back to the car we're just gonna come right back and then it'll be all the worse because we'll be separated. Is that really what you want?" 

Klaus nods, "Allison's right, man. We're not the Scooby Doo gang, there's no way we're splitting up." 

Luther and Diego agree wholeheartedly. 

And it has to be the drugs-or maybe the broken arm-or maybe the fact that he's just fucking so _relieved_ to see that they're not fucking dead-but Five relents without further argument, surprising the children. "Fine." He motions for them all to come closer. "Regardless, we need to move. Everyone make contact." 

They gather around him and hold hands in a small circle. 

Five inhales deeply and hopes to God this works. 

He closes his eyes and tries to concentrate. 

***********************************

"Someone explain to me how the hell you morons managed to botch this?" The Handler is standing over the fuck-tastrophic mess in the break room. Two agents-one passed out, the other dead. The one sleeping won't wake up, no matter how much the other agents have attempted to help her regain consciousness. 

One agent even went ahead and protruded her knife into the agents leg-but nothing. 

"Sorry madam." Agent Min shuffles nervously in place. 

"Why wasn't anyone standing guard at cell block eight?" Her eyes are sharp and unforgiving as she stares him down. 

"Everything seemed to be under control..." he admits, ashamed. "We didn't think-" 

The Handler reaches out and places her long thin fingers around his neck, pressing hard against his windpipe until the man is choking pitifully, helpless in her hold. She waits until he turns a frightening violet, before letting go of the agent. He falls to his knees, gasping for air and shaking. 

"I don't want excuses." The Handler informs him through clenched teeth, an angry throbbing vein on the side of her head. "If you don't find Agent Five you will be breathing with the help of a ventilator for the rest of your sorry, pathetic little life." 

The agent knows that's no threat; it's a promise. 

***********************************

Vanya is panicking. 

Her chest is heaving, her breaths coming in short, desperate gasps. This is a panic attack, she thinks, helplessly, hysterically. 

The silence is overbearing. 

She's not sure anymore how long it is that she's even been trapped inside of these four concrete walls. 

What she does know is this: No one is coming for her. 

There were so many strangers in the house-strangers with guns and other very sharp, very intimidating weapons. In Fives' condition (thanks to her and her _stupid_ powers) there's no way in hell he came out of that mess unscathed. She can't imagine it. And her brothers and sister... 

She doesn't know how any of them fared. Grace and Pogo are probably cleaning up the mess in her room, she thinks, numbly. They knocked over her violin and bow when they came to kidnap her. 

Vanya tries to calm herself down, tries to think of anything in order to avoid the awful silence penetrating her skull; it's unbearable. 

Why did-what she can only assume-a bunch of Temp Commission Agents from Fives past (future?) come for _her_ , of all people? Though she's recently learned that she is far from ordinary, it doesn't mean she's worth taking, either. It doesn't make any sense. She was certain when they broke into her room that they had to be turned around, mistaken perhaps. 

But no. 

Vanya huddles into a tiny ball in the middle of the room and covers her ears. Her heart is beating so rapidly it feels as though it's about to come up into her throat where she'll gag and throw it up. 

Vanya tries to calm herself. She draws in a breath and exhales slowly, focusing only on the frantic beat of her heart. 

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump. 

_Ba-thump._

************************************

"What the hell are we doing back here?" Diego looks at Five like he's gone nuts. 

They're back in cell block 008 for some ungodly reason. 

"Don't move." Five commands, and they all freeze automatically and without question. "We're in a blind spot right now." he explains, "They should be combing through the cameras right about now, looking for any leads as to where I went and who broke me out. They'll find out soon enough that it was you four. If they haven't already. They'll follow your movements and figure out your old hiding spot soon after." 

"Oh!" Luther exclaims once he realizes. "They won't come looking in here again. We'd be stupid to come back to the scene after escaping. They'll probably think we went up onto the streets." 

Five nods, exhausted. "Exactly. But The Handler is...unpredictable, at the best of times, so I can't say she won't backtrack for the fuck of it; I need you all to stay close, within quick reach, in case I need to teleport us all again." He looks at Klaus. "When your ghost pal finds Vanya I need him to describe exactly how he got there so I can calculate a route that won't get us killed, ok?" 

Klaus nods dutifully. It's the most serious Five has ever seen the kid. 

Diego folds his arms over his chest. "So, what? We just stand around doing nothing until Klaus and Casper the friendly ghost get it together? Shouldn't we be knocking heads and taking names, getting the location ourselves?" 

Five shakes his head. "The best option is to stay in place, out of sight, out of mind." His knees finally give out beneath the weight of him and gravity sends him careening onto the hard ground. He groans, blinking in quick succession to get rid of the double vision. 

"Five!" Allison kneels down beside him, one hand on a bare shoulder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have rumored you awake, I promised not to do it again but I did, and I-" 

"You did what you had to." Five huffs out. "I'm glad you did. I had an inkling you could rumor a man out of a coma, and I was right." he forces himself to grin up at her. "You took the initiative and it paid off. You did good." 

Allison stays seated next to him. She wraps both her arms around his uninjured one and clings. She's trembling. 

Fuck. 

Five fucking hates this. He's supposed to be keeping them safe, for fucks sake. And here they are, in danger, because of _him_. Because they decided his life was worth saving. 

Fuck. 

He leans into Allison, weak and in pain and kept stubbornly, impossibly conscious by the power of a rumor alone. "Everything is gonna be ok." he lies. 

The rest of the children crouch down, crowding behind him like newborn pups seeking comfort and warmth. 

After a few minutes Klaus whispers into the room. "Ben says he knows where they're keeping Vanya." 

********************************

Grace finds the note in Diego's handwriting taped to the door of the infirmary when she finally emerges, bloody and tired. She didn't know it was possible for an android to feel exhaustion like this, but she does. 

It's not physical. Not exactly. Emotional, perhaps? She's not certain. All that Grace knows is that if the children aren't in peril right this very moment they sure as hell will be when she finally tracks them down.... 

********************************

Five manages to transport them all about two thirds of the way to where the Commission agents are keeping Vanya. He's too weak to travel any further using his power-not with the children in tow, at least. 

Klaus leads the way, the ghost of Ben telling them which turns to take and when to stop and be still when an agent is rounding a certain corner in the hallway. They're just narrowly missing being caught on the security cameras, halting whenever Five signals for them to freeze. 

He wants to ask Klaus about Ben- _everyone_ does-but their predicament is extremely time sensitive. They need to find Vanya and get the hell out of dodge before The Handler catches a single whiff of them snooping about. If she finds them now they're dead for sure. Five is trying to conserve just enough of his nearly depleted energy to get the children back onto the street once they've secured Vanya. 

Up there, with the public watching, The Handler will have her hands tied and the Hargreeves' will have some time to regroup. 

"You're bleeding." Diego mutters softly, when they stop for a second. 

Five blinks, realizing he's got a nosebleed. He swipes his good arm across his face to wipe it off but he's not sure that it doesn’t just end up a smeared streak across his cheek. "It's fine. Come on. We need to keep moving." he insists. 

"Ben says she's being kept in some weird soundproof room around the corner and then just down some stairs." Klaus tells them. 

The moment they turn the corner a frantic man in a white bloodied lab coat comes running up the stairs like his life depends on it. Five tenses for half a second, thinking the man is going to report them the moment he sees the bunch, but he doesn't. He practically bulldozes past them in his haste to get away from whatever is down there. 

A part of Five wants to tell the kids to stay where they are while he goes to check out what the hell it is that's going on-but he knows they wouldn't listen, and he's not very keen on leaving them to fend for themselves, either. 

The closer they get to the bottom step the more stifling the air becomes, electrified. And it's not until they reach that final step that Five sees the cause. 

Vanya. 

Her eyes have turned bright, almost white, her pale skin nearly translucent as she floats a few feet over the dismembered bodies of several men and women in white lab coats. The room is covered in their blood and entrails. And the door to the soundproof room is laid out across the lab, dented in and nearly unrecognizable. 

The Handler will be here soon, Five thinks numbly. There's no fucking way that an entire research lab getting trashed like this-the entire staff (or most of it) obliterated to pieces-isn't news that's going to reach her in the next few minutes. 

They have five, maybe six minutes, if they're lucky. 

Before Five can tell the children to stay behind him while he tries to reason with Vanya and get her to come back to herself Allison has already ducked down under his arm and ran past. "Allison!" 

Vanya very slowly turns her head towards Allison, not quite seeing her sister. Allison stands straight, despite the waves of energy being directed towards her now. "Vanya!" she yells out, "We're here for you! We need to get out of here, now!" 

Vanya stares at her. Tilts her head, as though confused. "You're not afraid?" she asks, her voice soft. "Look at what I've done." 

Allison shakes her head. "I don't care! You need to come with us, please!" 

"You should care; you should be scared." Vanya says. The waves grow stronger and Allison can feel her feet shifting under her; it's getting harder to resist the push of the energy circulating the air. It's beginning to hurt. 

Just as Allison can feel herself being pushed backwards Diego is at her back, one hand on her shoulder to keep her grounded. "Stop fucking around and come home already!" He shouts. "I know I'm an asshole and you probably hate me, and that's fair, but there's no way in hell we're leaving this damn place without you, Vanya!" 

"Home?" Vanya mutters. The waves are growing stronger. "I don't belong..." 

"Vanny, powers or not you belong with us!" Klaus flings himself across the room and clings onto Diego and Allison to keep his balance. 

Luther-who's strong as can be-is less affected by the surge of energy waves coming at him, and he's the only one who can get as close to Vanya as he does, passing the rest of his siblings and looking up at the floating orb of light that is Number Seven. 

"You're scared of me." Vanya blinks at him, her eyes so brightly lit they hurt to look at. 

Luther nods. "I am." 

Tears, like static, fall down Vanyas cheeks and the waves grow so strong Diego, Allison and Klaus are immediately knocked down onto their backs onto the cold, unforgiving ground. Luther remains upright, though not without effort. 

"I'm also scared of Diego stabbing me in the throat and of the things Klaus can see, I'm scared of being rumored and sometimes I'm even scared of my own strength, of the things I can do." his voice shakes. "But the fear doesn't outweigh how much I love all of you. Five is right. We're not a comic book team of superheroes, Vanya. We're a _family_. And you're part of that. You're our sister." 

The waves around Vanya slowly ebb away before disappearing altogether and suddenly she's falling, rushing to hit the ground. Luther catches her before that can happen and Vanya throws her arms around his neck and sobs quietly. "They wouldn't let me out." 

"It's gonna be ok." Luther holds her close. He's shaking almost as badly as she is. "We're gonna get you out of here. Everything's gonna be fine." 

The others surround the pair and it's as close to a group hug as the Hargreeves are going to get to, the way each sibling reaches out for some kind of contact. Klaus holds onto Luthers shoulder. Allison places a gentle hand above the crown of Vanyas head. And Diego burrows close to Klaus' side. 

They stand huddled like that for a few seconds before Allison notices that in all the chaos of the last few minutes Five has been MIA. "Five?" she calls out, peeking past Luther and Vanya. The last she saw of him he was on the last of the steps, trying to block them all from running into the room. 

"Five!" she gasps. 

At some point Five had collapsed. Now he's sitting-held upright only by the wall-on the steps, his face deathly pale. He's trembling, they notice, once they're close enough. His eyes are half lidded, but he is painfully aware. "M'fine." he lies, his voice thin. "We gotta go." 

"In _that_ state? Oh Five, you really are just an optimist in disguise, aren't you?" 

The children go rigid. 

At the very top of the stairs, with a barrage of agents behind her, is The Handler. And she's smiling saccharinely. Which can't possibly bode well. 

Somehow (through sheer stubborn force of will alone) Five drags himself up by the rail and turns to face her. "Hold on to me." he whispers under his breath, gulping hard. They do as they're told, clutching onto him and each other. Luther is still carrying a half conscious Vanya, exhausted from having used so much of her power. 

Five takes a breath. 

****************************

" _Fuck_!" Five falls to the ground on his hands and knees and heaves. There's nothing to throw up, but damn his body if it won't stop trying to get rid of whatever bile is in his stomach. He messed up. They're back in cell block eight. He doesn't have enough energy to travel any further. 

His head is pounding horribly and his arm is throbbing against his side. He feels as though he's currently being held together by string and tape and only that. He's only given them a few minutes to come up with a plan, at this rate. Not great. 

"We can fight our way out." Diego says. 

Luther shakes his head. "Vanya and Five can barely move. And you saw how many guys she had with her-there were at least twenty that I could count. That's too many." 

Diego frowns. "We fought at least ten between the two of us in the kitchen." 

"Yeah, and we would've died if not for Pogo." Luther reminds him patiently. 

Allison nods. "I don't know how many of them have those stupid ear plug things now that they know we're here, I don't think I'll be too much help in that case." 

"Ben can try to lead us out of here and back up onto the streets, but he says there's a ton of agents swarming the halls right now, looking for us." Klaus bites at his nails nervously. This is so not how he pictured dying. 

"We need to hide." Five says. "I need a couple of hours to recharge. Once that's done I can get us out." 

"Hide where, though?" Luther asks, incredulous. "You heard Klaus, there's nowhere those agents aren't looking, eventually they're gonna find us in here and we're toast." 

"We don't necessarily need to hide." Allison says, the gears in her head turning. "We can barricade ourselves in this room until Fives powers come back. It doesn't matter if they know where we are if they can't get to us." 

Five nods. He's not sure it'll work, quite frankly, but he also knows there's not much other option left for them. 

Diego flings one of his knives into the lense of the camera in the cell-it won't stop the agents from locating them, but it will at least give them some privacy. 

Luther puts Vanya down next to Five and he and the rest of the children work on closing off the entrance to the cell. Luther breaks the metal cage inside the room apart and uses the unhinged bars to stack against the door, jamming it shut. The others help in securing the bars. 

They huddle towards the corner of the room after they're done and do the only thing they can do: wait. 

"I can unrumor you now so you can get some rest." Allison tells Five, crouching down in front of him, her face a mixture of anxiety and worry. 

Five shakes his head. "I just need to catch my breath," he says. The truth is, if he lets the power of her rumor be taken away he might not wake back up again. If he passes out now and doesn't wake up in time, they're all dead. 

Vanya has fallen asleep on his lap, and Luther-worn out from bending and twisting all of those bars-is on his way to dreamland, too, his head resting against Fives shoulder. 

The quiet won't last long, he knows. Soon enough The Handler and the Temps Commission Agents will be knocking at their door.

As much time as Five needs, he's well aware that he doesn't have it. He needs to re-energize himself, and quickly. His stomach growls and he grimaces. Reginald always told him not to depend on food for energy in order to use his powers. _"You won't always have it readily available on missions,"_ he used to say, _"And when you let yourself, and your team down, who will you have to blame then, but your reliance on food?"_

And again, it seems as if the old son of a bitch was right. 

"Here," Allison hands Five a granola bar. "You should eat. I brought a bunch so eat as many as you can." She opens up her backpack and in it there's a travel sized first aid kit, a ton of granola bars, and an assortment of weapons. She takes the first aid kit out and sits it in front of her. "Do you mind if I take a look at your arm?" She peeks into the kit-there's not much there for a compound fracture, but it'll have to do for now. 

Five lets her fiddle with his broken forearm while he chews on the bar with some gusto. When she unwraps her shirt sleeve from his arm she winces. There's not a lot she can do, except pour alcohol over the wound and wrap it up properly in some gauze. Allison is impressed by his lack of flinching, until she realizes he's feigning stoicism for Luthers sake, who's still leaning against Five, but wide awake now, staring at the awful bloody mess that is his arm. 

"So," Diego starts, ansty to distract from what's to come. "When were you planning on telling us about Ben?" 

Klaus groans. "God, seriously? This can't wait?" 

"I mean, we've got time to kill." Diego shrugs. "Ben died over six months ago now, have you been able to see him this whole time?" 

"I-" Klaus wraps his arms around his knees and curls in on himself. "Yeah." he admits. "Since um, since after the funeral. I just kinda...conjured him?" 

"Is he here right now?" Allison asks. 

Klaus nods hesitantly. "Yeah. Uh, he says 'hi'." 

**_BANG_ **! 

The children all jump, including Vanya, who wakes up with a start. "What's that?" 

"They're here." Five glowers at the entrance, his hackles raised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof, one! more! chapter! it's gonna be a whole mess lol someone pray for five and these kids. 
> 
> broken record here: but THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING AND FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND SUPPORT! It's meant the world to me, seriously. Ya'll are amazing and this is officially the longest thing I've ever written, that is WILD. I'm very excited and a little sad, admittedly, that it's almost over, but I am super eager to start PART 2 of the series (I've already got SO MANY IDEAS!!) :) 
> 
> <3


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so MUCH for the support, the patience, and all of the amazing comments, it really has meant the world to me, and here we FINALLY are, at the end! (except that part two is coming soon so please stay tuned lol) 
> 
> Also, I added a very short epilogue bc trust me, it was needed. I hope you all enjoy! :)

It doesn’t matter that Five is injured and exhausted-that door is coming down, and  _ soon _ . The agents have been going at it with a goddamn battering ram for the past twenty minutes, and the hinges have started to come out. 

**BANG** !

**BANG** !

**BANG** !

Time is running out and there’s nothing left to do but prepare for a fight. 

Allison-thankfully-had the foresight to bring an arsenal of weapons with her from the house, and for the past fifteen minutes she’s been teaching Vanya and Klaus how to handle their guns. Vanya was never taught how to defend herself like the rest of the children, and Klaus had never paid any attention during their lessons, so they’re pretty much in the same boat. 

Luther and Five are working on wolfing down as many granola bars as possible. Luther for the calories-the more calories he has the more strength he can afford to expend-and Five is hoping the sugar will jump start his powers into functioning again. 

Diego has more knives with him than he does fingers and toes combined, and he’s been standing in a fighting stance, ready and tense, since the first loud bang hit the door. 

Five knows his siblings are anything but defenseless kids. But he also knows that they don’t stand a chance of surviving against the amount of Temps Commission agents as there are out there right now. If he could just muster up enough power to get them to the surface, then maybe. But as it is, he doesn’t see this ending in their favor. 

He can see the determination on each of their faces, however, and Five isn’t going to take that away from them. 

**BANG** !

Luther stops chewing for a moment and looks beside him at Five. “Should I try to hold the door shut?” 

Five shakes his head. There’s no point. Luther is incredibly strong, strong enough that he might be able to hold them all back for another few minutes, but eventually they’d burst through the door, knocking Luther off balance and shoot him dead before he could so much as regain his footing. 

“I need you guys to stay behind me. No hero shit. Aim to kill but try and keep your distance. Got it?” 

One by one the children each nod solemnly. 

Allison cocks her gun and walks over to the door. 

**BANG** ! 

“Allison-” Five starts. What is she doing? 

Allison stares at the door and concentrates. “I heard a rumor this door would  _ not  _ open.” 

**BANG** ! 

The hinges come loose entirely and fall to the floor with a clatter. 

**BANG** ! 

One side of the door caves in and they can see the agents now, struggling to get through. 

“Allison, get over here,  _ now _ !” Five yells, getting up and stumbling across the room to reach for her shoulder. She goes willingly, letting him drag her back to the corner. 

“I’m sorry, I thought it might work.” She’s kicking herself for the failed attempt, Five can tell. 

“It was a good try.” Five squeezes her shoulder. “When we get home we’ll practice more, ok? We’ll get there, don’t worry.” 

Allison gulps and her eyes are wide and teary when she asks, “You promise?” 

He’s not sure they’ll make it out of here alive, that they’ll ever see home again-that’s the truth. But instead of telling her that, he does what he knows best. “Of course.” he lies. 

**BANG** ! 

The door comes barreling into the room, bars flying every which way. Five pushes Allison back and he’s so ready for the shooting to commence, but not a single agent enters. 

It’s quiet for a moment. 

The Handler appears to be completely unruffled as she steps foot inside, her heels clacking against the concrete. 

Before Five can order the children to halt, Diego flings no less than five knives through the air, all of them aimed at The Handlers skull. They bounce right off of her, like rubber bands. The force field shield she’d worn that first time at the diner is activated again, repulsing anything harmful. 

“Cute.” She smiles tightly. 

Five knows that smile. 

She’s  _ furious _ . 

“Five,” The Handler addresses him fully, ignoring the children. 

Slowly, she walks straight up to him. 

_ Click clack, click clack,  _ her heels go. 

She’s always been taller than Five, and those heels add several inches; she towers above him now and he’s so sure she’s going to start in on one of those infamous, tragic Shakespearean monologues of hers-

So he’s not exactly expecting the swift backhand, her nails dragging across the side of his face. He nearly loses his balance, the shock of the assault quickly wearing off as he tries to summon his powers. 

Suddenly there are rounds of bullets being fired in their direction and Five is screaming for the children to take cover. The disaster that ensues in the cell boils down to a cacophony of shooting and shrieking for what feels like torturously long hours, but probably only occurs within a matter of seconds. 

It’s only when The Handler manages to pin Five up against a concrete wall, a gun jammed underneath his chin, that everything stops just as soon as it began. 

Five’s adrenaline is pumping, frenzied, his eyes going all over the room.

_ One _ . There are no less than four agents on Luther, crowded atop of him as he grunts and attempts to fight back. 

_ Two _ . Diego’s on the floor, a knee at his back. There’s blood around his forehead but he’s still struggling. 

_ Three _ . Allison is fixed against the opposite wall from him, face smushed into it, her wrists held behind her. 

_ Four _ . Klaus is huddled over in the corner, down on his knees, arms raised, his own weapon pointed at him by a Temps agent. 

_ Seven _ . They have Vanya by her hair, she’s petrified. 

Five breathes out a faint sigh of relief. 

They’re all alive, accounted for. 

The Handler cocks her gun. She’s smiling with all teeth now. 

“ _ No _ !” someone screams, but Five isn’t sure who. 

She pulls the trigger and the pain is immeasurable-but only for two seconds-and then his world goes pitch black. 

  
  


************************

Allison can’t stop crying. 

She can’t stop crying and she doesn’t know why. 

She  _ should  _ stop. Her mouth is covered in this God awful muzzle. A part of her is afraid all this stupid crying she’s doing is going to clog up her nostrils and the muzzle won’t allow her to draw in a proper breath and she’ll suffocate like this. What a horrible, idiotic way to die, she thinks miserably. 

Klaus scoots close to her in their sad little cage, and with cuffed hands he squeezes her knee, hoping to bring some semblance of comfort. “Hey, it’s ok, we’re ok.” That’s not  _ entirely  _ true. But they are alive. And that’s something, he supposes. For now. 

Diego, who’s been pacing back and forth for the past ten minutes, finally snaps. “Allison shut up already, Jesus Christ! I’m trying to listen for the guards!” 

Luther, who’s in his own separate cage apart from the three, across the room, glares at Diego. “ _ Dude _ !” He’s in the same cuffs Five was in before. They’re wrapped around his ankles as well, so that he can’t even stand up. If he had the energy, he might be able to break free, but at the moment it’s taking him effort just to stay conscious. 

Diego turns to him-and if not for his own cuffs, he’d fold his arms across his chest and huff, annoyed-“Don’t give me that look! She’s been wailing nonstop for the last-God-I don’t even know now, how long it’s been! We need to regroup and focus on getting the hell out of here!” 

Luther stares at him, deadpan. “How exactly do you expect us to do that?” 

Diego rolls his eyes. “What happened to all that ‘I’m the leader’ bullshit, Number One, shouldn’t you have a plan somewhere up your ass, oh great strategist that you are?” 

“If by some miracle I was able to get free the first I’d do is kick your ass!” Luther loses whatever cool he’s been trying to hold onto. 

“Oh, I’d  _ love  _ to see you try!” Diego bites back. 

“Can ya’ll both shut the fuck up?!” Klaus cries out. “Now is  _ not  _ the time for this petty drama! And this is coming from  _ me _ ! A huge fan of petty drama!” 

Klaus isn’t one for yelling, and it makes all three of his siblings quiet down for a moment. Even Allison’s sobs turn into mere sniffles. Klaus turns back to her and wipes away a tear from her cheek. “ _ Five is alive _ . We all are. It’s ok.” he assures her. “I know that shit was fucking horrifying to watch, but it wasn’t a real gun. He was just electrocuted, ok? He’s probably somewhere in this hell maze going crazy trying to find us right now.” 

Allison sniffles again and nods. 

It _had_ been horrifying to watch. She’d screamed out in a panic,  _ I heard a rumor you couldn’t pull that trigger, I heard a rumor the gun jammed, I heard a rumor you didn’t have any fingers to pull that fucking trigger, I heard a rumor you were dead… _

And then The Handler had pulled that trigger and Allison’s heart had stopped, her breath caught in her throat. But unlike the spray of blood and brain matter she’d been expecting to see, Five’s entire body had gone rigid with the electricity coursing through it, his eyes had rolled to the back of his head and he’d collapsed into a heap on the ground, motionless. 

It should have been a relief. That he’d only been rendered unconscious and not dead. But Allison can’t wrap her head around the literal bullet they’d just dodged. Until she sees Five again, alive and breathing and talking, she won’t feel that relief. 

Still, she knows she needs to be strong right now. 

Slowly, she stands up, she walks over to the bars of their cage and signs to Luther. ‘How’s Vanya looking?’ 

Luther looks to the cage behind his; Vanya is also being held captive on her own. “She looks alright. They gave her a sedative to keep her unconscious, I think.” One of the people in white lab coats had injected something into her neck that had knocked Vanya out cold while they had all been dragged from cell eight and into this new prison, for transport. 

Klaus sits up suddenly. “Ben says they’re coming.” 

Allison grabs Diego by the arm and forces him to sit down with her and Klaus on the floor. The less combative they look the better. 

A round of Temps agents come marching in, weapons drawn. They surround every inch of their perimeter. 

The Handler strolls in, humming a joyous tune, and Allison thinks:  _ I heard a rumor you were dead. I heard a rumor you were dead. I heard a rumor you were dead.  _

“I’m actually quite impressed.” She begins, as though her praise is something any of them should be seeking. “I  _ was  _ going to have you all killed, but some of you have the potential to make half decent recruits.” 

“Fuck off.” Diego spits out. 

The Handler spares him a brief, unamused look, “Don’t flatter yourself, Number Two, I wasn’t talking about you.” she makes her way to Vanyas cage and grins. “I need her kept unconscious for the time being. If she begins to stir, have a white coat brought in immediately.” 

“Yes ma’am.” 

The Handler parts the room after that, without so much as a glance back at the children, leaving the agents to keep watch for her. 

As soon as she’s out of the room the top agent drops his rigid stance and lets out a disgruntled sigh. “Have any of you chuckleheads managed to get any signal down here, yet?” 

Another agent grunts, “No.”

“Don’t worry, I sent Jones to get us a few pies.” An agent wearing a bloodied unicorn mesh head pipes up. “I gave her my card but you jackwads aren’t stiffing me again, I’ve already split up the cost evenly among all of us.” 

They argue all the way up until Jones-or what the children presume is agent Jones-sneaks back into the underground facility, carrying a ridiculous stack of pizzas. “Alright ya animals, have at it.” 

“Finally!” 

Klaus realizes he has no idea how much time has actually passed between the time they were attacked in the umbrella academy and now. Is it morning yet? It has to be. His stomach gurgles noisily at the mesmerizing scent of fresh, out of the oven pizza wafting through the air now. 

“I’m kind of disappointed.” An agent says, mouth full as he chews. “I thought capturing legendary agent Five would be a hell of a lot harder.” 

The top agent scoffs. “We lost about half the team, the fuck more did you want, Walt?” 

Walt shrugs. “I’m just saying, we’re talking about The Boy here, you know?” 

Jones nods in agreement. “He’s got a point, Lou.” she says. “That kid survived for over a  _ decade  _ in total isolation, man. I lost big on the betting pool.” 

Lou rolls his eyes. “That’s what you get for gambling. Like we get paid enough to be throwin’ it all away.” 

Jones groans. “I thought it was a sure thing! What kind of thirteen year old kid is  _ that  _ self sufficient?” 

Walt shudders. “I remember  _ every  _ single bug he ate…” 

Another agent joins in the conversation with a cackle. “That shit was classic!” 

Walt gives him a look. “Gross.” he shakes his head. “Anyway, I know he spent a ton of years wasting away in the apocalypse and all, but he’s like,  _ way  _ smaller than I’d been imagining? I thought he’d be taller.” 

“I guess that’s what going through puberty in an apocalypse does to you.” Jones laughs. “And now look at him, all that potential wasted.” 

“You think The Handler’s really gonna kill him?” Walt asks, surprised. 

“Twenty bucks says she does it with her bare hands.” 

“You’re on.” 

“You two idiots really need to stop gambling.” Lou sighs. 

  
  


**********************************

  
  


Five is brought in wearing the same cuffs Luther had broken his out of at the ticket booth. He’s being led by four different agents, two at his shoulders and two on his six. He’s in a hospital patient gown and looking deathly pale all over, dark circles forming under his eyes. 

When he sees the children his eyes go wide and he goes tense. 

The Handler makes her usual graceful entrance, the frills of her dress swishing back and forth with every step takes forward. 

_ Click clack. Click clack.  _

“Now,” she starts, “The board really only sent me here to retrieve you, Five. As far as they’re concerned, the rest of your irksome brood can easily cease to be-at my discretion, of course.” she smirks, lips puckered. “But I’m willing to make you a deal.” 

Five holds back the urge to tell her where exactly she can shove her ‘deal’, bites his tongue and waits patiently. He can feel the kids' eyes boring into him. 

“We could use a couple of them in the Commission. Number Three has promise,” she says, now looking at Allison past the bars. “And of course, Number Seven. I will spare their lives.” she turns back to Five. “But only on the condition that you be the one to execute the remaining three. And don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Five. Because it’s either that or you watch them all die one by one in the next sixty seconds.” The Handler takes out a pocket watch and starts the time. “Fifty nine…fifty eight...fifty seven…” 

“I’ve made my decision,” Five scowls. “You can stop it with the melodrama.” 

The children watch him from their cages, hearts hammering in their chests. 

The Handler grins. “Oh? Is that so?” 

“But before that, I do have one question for you. If you’ll allow it.” 

“Go on.” 

“You’re not working under any orders from the head of the board; Carmichael would never approve of all this over expenditure of company money, time and resources.” 

The Handler is about to interrupt him but he speaks right over her, quickly, “So my question here is: do any of these agents working under you know they’re all risking their pensions for this backward ass vendetta you seem to have against me?” 

The room is quiet for a moment. 

“Is that true?” Lou turns to The Handler, tilts his wolf mesh head. He’d suspected something seemed off about this mission for a while now-their lack of intel, for one-but hadn’t had the guts or evidence enough to stand up to her about it. 

Until now. 

Some of the agents begin to murmur curiously among themselves. 

The Handlers’ sharp gaze doesn’t waver now from Fives. “Does it matter?” 

“What the fuck do you mean?” The top agent draws his gun, beyond pissed. “I’m not getting fired over this shit. Are you really telling me Carmichael didn’t sanctify this bullshit mission?” 

“What’s done is done.” The Handler raises an unimpressed brow at the barrel of the pistol aimed at her face from across the room. “Now put that thing away before you  _ hurt  _ yourself.” 

A fair number of Temps agents, including three of the ones who were surrounding Five, abruptly switch alliances, siding with Lou. 

A few agents remain under The Handlers’ thumb, unsure as to where exactly their loyalties should lie at this point. 

“We have the bomb.” The Handler rolls her eyes. “The timeline will be restored and Carmichael will praise you all for a job well done-you might even get raises and extra vacation days if you just play your cards right and put. Down. Your. Weapons.” 

“Alternatively,” Five cocks his head at Lou, smiling widely, dimples and all. “You turn in a rogue-a rogue in  _ upper management _ , no less-to the board of directors, and you all live to kill another day.” 

“We’re pulling out and reporting to HR. They can deal with this fucking spectacle.” Lou signals at the other agents surrounding him to follow his lead and The Handler watches, mouth agape, as they try to make their way out of the cell. 

Without hesitation she pulls an assault rifle out from underneath the hem of her skirt and opens fire. 

“ **DOWN** !” Five screams, as he uses the agent in front of him as a shield. The children try their best to take cover in their cages, but fortunately it’s not them that The Handler is aiming for. 

One by one, like dominoes, the agents fall, soundless, their bodies hitting the ground in mass, and it isn’t until the last body drops onto the stack that The Handler stops shooting, her chest heaving, a rabid caricature of a smile on her face. 

Five stares up at her from his crouched position, half deafened from the tinnitus. The agents left standing-those who chose to stay-don’t know whether to look at her or at the corpses of their former coworkers. Those agents who at once were professional killers themselves, now dead, drowning in a puddle of their own blood-they’d tried to retaliate, of course, but The Handlers protective barrier had easily repelled every attack. 

She was untouchable. 

“Now,” The Handler clears her throat. She lets the empty rifle fall to the ground with a clatter and the agents around her flinch and stand up straighter. “Where were we?” 

Just then the lights cut off and Five hears the unmistakable sound of the cage doors unlocking. His arms, weighed down by the thick metal cuffs, promptly feel lighter as the things open up around him and plummet to the ground with a loud clang. He doesn’t know what the hell is going on, and in the very momentary confusion all of this causes, he’s not planning to find out. 

The agents panicking help cover Five corralling his siblings from their cages-he can hear The Handler telling everyone to shut up, but it’s no use, they’re too shaken to listen to reason. The children, trained ruthlessly by Reginald to bottle up their feelings during missions, don’t waste any time. 

The moment Luther is free from the metal cuffs on his arms and ankles he crawls to where he remembers Vanya’s cage was and drags her unconscious body across the room, with Fives help. Allison, Klaus and Diego are already at the door waiting for them, urging them to hurry up, quietly, while one agent yells about a backup generator. 

Overall, it takes about forty seconds for said backup generator to finally come back online. By the time that happens, and the lights are all operational again, The Handler is enraged to find that only she and her bumbling agents remain. 

From down the corridor Five can hear her  _ scream _ . 

**********************************

“What the shit was that?” Diego huffs out, jittery and filled with adrenaline. 

“Luck.” Allison is glad to finally have that muzzle off her face and be able to speak out loud. “Who cares  _ what  _ it was, we need to get out of here. That maniac still has like ten agents on her side, and who knows how many others lurking around.” 

Five nods. “Allison’s right. Everybody gather around, c’mon.” 

They huddle together and Five prays his powers have made a miraculous return. He pulls all of his strength, his hands begin to glow blue and whir with waves of energy and that’s as far as he gets when they unceremoniously fizzle out and he’s left gasping for air, dizzy and frustrated. “ _ Fuck _ !” 

“I-it’s ok,” Luther bites his bottom lip. “We can just make a run for it. I don’t think the exit is too far from here?” 

Klaus looks behind them with wide, frantic eyes. “Ben says they’re on our tail.” 

Five tries to compose himself. “Alright, we need to keep moving then.” If they get caught this time, he knows there’s no way in hell The Handler is letting any of them live. 

None of them are in any condition to be running about, least of all Five, but they don’t have any other option. Luther’s running causes Vanya to be jostled so much that at some point she regains consciousness. “Wha’ happened?” she’s groggy, holding onto Luther’s shoulders for support. 

“Running away from bad guys!” 

Vanya nods, her eyes roaming around her to make sure everyone is with them. “Good.” 

They round a sharp corner and Diego cries out, “ _Mom_!” he catapults himself towards Grace and buries his head into her neck, so relieved he could cry. 

Grace holds him tight and smiles when the rest of the kids crowd around her for comfort. “You found us!” Klaus grins. 

“Wait, were you the one who-” Allison starts. 

Grace nods. “I found the power grid control room. From there, it was easy to temporarily disable everything.” she turns to Five. “The exit is nearby. We don’t have much time to reach it before they catch up to us.” 

“Right.” 

Five takes the lead, just in case there’s trouble up ahead, with Grace in the rear. 

They’re running as fast as they can, but it’s not nearly fast enough, and Five can hear the  _ click clack, click clack  _ of The Handlers heels behind them, and he knows they’re not going to make it. 

“There’s a shortcut this way.” Grace points them towards what looks like a bunker door-reinforced steel with only a small pale window for observation at the very top. “Everyone, hurry now.” she ushers. 

Five and the children enter without question, only to hit a dead end almost immediately. Five turns around to tell Grace she must be mistaken just as she closes the door shut, locking them inside. 

“Mom?” Diego tries to open the door, looks at her with panicked eyes through the looking glass. 

She smiles gently at him from the other side. “I am sorry for the deceit. We never would have made it to the exit in time. This is our only option. Everything will be alright. I need you all to take cover-” 

“M-m-mom, n-no!” Diego shakes his head in disbelief. “There’s too m-many of them, y-y-you can’t hold them all back by yourself! Let us help y-you!” 

Five bangs a fist against the door, scowling at their mother. “He’s right, you can take on maybe three or five of them, but there’s no way this plan of yours works, let us out of here! The Handler has a protective shield around her so even if you-” 

“Your father installed a failsafe in me.” Grace explains calmly. 

Five gulps, shakes his head in denial. “But I  _ reprogrammed  _ you-” 

“And I’m grateful for that. It means that what I’m about to do is my own choice.” 

“What is she talking about?!” Luther looks between the two, sees the sudden understanding dawning on Fives face in the form of horror. 

“You  _ can’t _ .” Five pulls at the door fruitlessly. “Open this door, mom!  _ Now _ !” 

Luther sets Vanya down on the ground and has Five and Diego stand aside. “I can open it!” he insists, straining every muscle in his body. He doesn’t understand quite what’s happening, only that it’s bad, but his strength is failing him, exhaustion making him weak. “Damn it!” 

“Enough,” Grace places her hand on the glass. “Please take cover.” 

“Mom, p-please!” Diego begs, struggling to get the door open along with Luther. 

“Five,” Grace looks at him, eyes bright. “I need you to look after them now. And don’t forget to take care of yourself, too, alright?” 

She turns her back to him before Five can find the words to say what he needs to say-he can never quite find the right words to say. 

Five tries to tug Luther and Diego away from the door, Luther goes willingly, scooping Vanya back up and doing as instructed when Five tells them to huddle in the corner. Allison and Klaus sit at either side of Luther and hold onto him, tight. 

Diego is much less willing. He’s kicking and screaming bloody murder, his small hands glued to the door out of sheer stubbornness alone. Five has to muster up whatever strength he has left to pry his fingers away from the round handle. 

On the other side of the door Grace is making friends with The Handler, who enters the area followed by no less than fifteen agents. “And who the  _ hell  _ are you?” The Handler has become-for lack of a better term-unhinged. She’s about ready to start foaming at the mouth with the amount of fury coursing through her veins. 

“You have ten seconds to surrender.” Grace informs her. 

The Handler lets out a maniacal burst of laughter, livid. “Is that right? A 1950’s housewife is giving  _ me _ -” 

“Five seconds.” She warns politely. 

The Handler drops her grin, “Shoot her.” she commands. 

Grace, even in kitten heels, is faster than the average human. She’s able to cross the room in the blink of an eye and suddenly she’s a hair's breadth away from The Handlers face, their noses practically touching. The Handler blinks and only has a chance to take a single step backwards before Grace utters, “ _ One _ .” And wraps both arms around The Handlers waist.

Five is still attempting to reign Diego in when Grace self-detonates. 

The blast of the explosion is so strong it sends the bunker door careening into the room. Five throws himself on top of Diego to protect him from the wave of heat that rolls over them and shouts for everyone to lay low. He’s not sure if the sound of his voice even carries out to the rest of his siblings.

There’s a ringing in Fives ears-he thinks he might have shattered his eardrums, it hurts so bad. It’s hot all over and there’s a terrible odor clogging up his nostrils. 

He’s familiar with the smell: burnt flesh. 

There’s a faint screaming and it takes Five a moment too long to realize it’s coming from beneath him. Diego is still struggling in his grasp, crying out for Grace and pushing at Fives chest. 

Dark, heavy clouds of smoke infiltrate the bunker and Five knows they need to move. Scrambling, Five drags himself to his feet, coughing as the fumes make their way into his lungs. Slowly, the others follow his lead. Diego runs out ahead of them and straight into the fire. 

It’s everywhere. Flames licking at the walls, across the floor and dancing up the columns. The bloody, charred chunks of dismembered agents are barely recognizable as human, anymore. 

Even The Handlers protective barrier wasn’t enough to withstand such a close radius blast. Her body is the least damaged, however. Five bends down to inspect the corpse, to confirm that she really is dead. Her glassy eyes stare back up at him, unmoving and empty. 

Allison coughs into the crook of her elbow. “The fire’s spreading.” 

Luther nods solemnly beside her. “We should...we should probably go.” 

Diego spins around, betrayal written across his face. “We can’t leave without m-mom!” 

Vanya, still in Luther’s arms, stares out among the ash and rubble and there, in the distance, she spots a tattered cloth, pink with black polka dots. “Mom…” she mumbles, pointing with a shaky finger. 

Diego gets down on one knee and digs through the pile, his fingernails gathering soot. When he pulls out the piece of cloth he’s only able to hold it in his palm for a second before it disintegrates, turning to ash.

There’s nothing else left of Grace…. 

Klaus crouches down on the ground, covers his ears and closes his eyes tight. “Can we  _ please  _ go?” he half begs. The ghosts are all angry and so very  _ loud _ . He can’t stand much more. 

“Shit,” Five leans over Klaus and takes him by the shoulders, grounding him in their plane of reality. “We need to get out of here.” he states, pointedly looking at Diego, who still hasn’t gotten up.

One of the columns begins to crumble. 

“Now.” Five says numbly. “ _Please_.” 

  
  
  


******************************

  
  
  


It’s dark out when they emerge from the underground. 

The streets of Brooklyn are quiet, despite the fire raging just underneath. 

The Hargreeves must look a sight. Covered in ash and blood, stinking of smoke and grief, battered and bruised-hell, Five is still wearing a hospital gown. But it’s nighttime in the streets of New York, which means most people would rather look the other way. And they do. 

They reach the car-their goal-and it’s bittersweet. Five almost laughs at the audacity of the fucking parking ticket under the wiper on their windshield. He crumbles the paper in his hand and tosses it aside and beats his urge to throw up. 

The children shuffle into the back, minus Vanya, who Luther sits beside Five next to the drivers seat, and buckles in. 

They have a long ride ahead of them. 

  
  
  


******************************

  
  


The car ride is a little bumpy and a lot quiet.

  
  


The silence lasts for the length of time that it takes Five to get them onto the highway. 

“I’m hungry.” Klaus whines. 

“We can order something when we get home.” Five mutters, mostly paying attention to the road. 

“Is that really all you can think about right now?” Luther stares at Klaus incredulously. “After all we just went through…?” 

“You hogged all the granola bars.” Klaus snipes. 

“I needed the energy!” 

“What for?” Diego scoffs, leaning into his seat angrily. “You couldn’t even open a fucking door.” 

Luther rheels back, as if recovering from a hit. He shifts the blame in order to quell his own guilt. “Well if Five had been able to use his powers earlier-”

Allison cuts him off with a shove. “That’s not fair!” 

“I mean, what in our lives is?” Klaus bemoans cavalierly. 

“ _ You _ can shut up!” Diego yells. “When the hell were you even gonna tell us about Ben?! Were you  _ ever  _ gonna say anything?!” 

“Ben?” Vanya turns around in her seat. 

“Apparently Klaus here has been able to communicate with Ben this entire time!” Allison shakes her head. “And didn’t feel it was pertinent to tell the rest of us.” 

“What, like any of you would have even believed me?” Klaus folds his arms over his chest. “Half the time you guys don’t even think my powers are  _ real _ !” 

“You never use them,” Luther reasons. “Vanyas powers are more credible than yours, at this point. At least we got to see hers in action.” 

Vanya cringes at the vague memory. She barely recalls actually using them, only coming back to herself in Luthers arms, scared out of her mind and more tired than she’d ever felt in her whole life. 

Five should say something to try and end the arguing, before it escalates any further, but he wouldn’t know what to say if it bit him in the ass. He thinks if Grace were here she would know exactly what to do in order to keep the children from killing each other in the backseat. 

Except that’s such a ridiculous thought, because Grace is  _ gone _ -blown to bits because he couldn’t save them, because he wasn’t enough. 

Diego is yelling now but there’s a ringing in Fives ear and it’s only getting louder as the children continue to bicker and fight. He can feel kicking at the back of his seat, elbows being thrown about, someone complains about hair pulling and Five should really tell them to cut it out, they’re in the middle of the highway, for fucks sake. This is dangerous, he thinks. 

Five tries to draw in a deep breath but it gets lodged in his throat and his chest begins to feel tight, a pressure that’s never not been there steadily growing. He grips at the steering wheel, his knuckles white under the dried blood. 

“You’re such an asshole!” Luther screams, reaching over Klaus to push Diego. 

“Eat shit!” Diego throws a punch and Allison blocks it easily, throwing her own in return.

The car is shaking now with the scuffle and Vanya mutters a soft, “Uh, guys?” she looks back and forth between her siblings in the back and at Five, who hasn’t said a word yet. “Um, Five?” she asks, wondering if he’s going to do anything to stop everyone from tearing each other apart. 

Someone's elbow hits the back of Fives headrest,  _ hard _ , and without any warning, their car jerks violently, crossing three different lanes. He pulls over onto the shoulder of the highway and several cars honk in their direction in outrage as they fly past. 

The children finally stop fighting and gape at Five over the insane stunt. They stare at him and wait in total silence, fully expecting Five to blow up at all of them for the havoc they’ve been causing, any second now. 

So it’s to everyone’s complete and utter shock when instead, Five leans forward into the steering wheel and lets out a nearly inaudible noise. 

“F-Five?” 

The car is still. 

And it is only when his shoulders start to shake noticeably that any of his siblings realize Five is sobbing soundlessly. 

_ I need you to take care of them now.  _

How is he supposed to do that by himself? 

God. 

Here he was, for so long, thinking he didn’t need a mom anymore, thinking he was too old for such creature comforts. How he would give just about anything to sit down next to Grace and bask in her presence one more time. 

“Five?” Vanya hesitantly rests her hand against his trembling shoulder and he sucks in a sharp breath. 

“ _ I’m sorry. _ ” 

  
  
  


****************************

  
  


The sun is peeking out against the horizon when the Hargreeves make it back to the Academy. Everyones eyes are red rimmed and wet with tears as they stagger into the mansion, bone tired and filled with unbearable sorrow. 

Pogo made it through surgery-miraculously-but it doesn’t seem as though he’ll be waking up anytime soon. He’s dependent on machinery in order to breath, and there are so many wires sticking out of him it’s hard to look at. 

“Your arm…” Allison says softly. The bone is no longer sticking out-thanks to the work of a doctor in the underground facility-but the stitching is gnarly at best and there’s fresh blood seeping through the white bandages. He needs a cast. 

“It’s fine.” Five knows there’s a sling in the infirmary somewhere, but he can’t be bothered to look for it right now. 

Instead he patches up the children's various injuries. Fortunately none of them are too severely hurt, nothing that requires a hospital visit, at least. Mostly they’re just exhausted and dehydrated. 

Five orders an enormous amount of breakfast food from the nearby diner when he realizes that their kitchen is uninhabitable for cooking or eating. For that matter, so is the living room and several of the rooms upstairs, too. All trashed beyond recognition. 

When the food arrives they sit in a circle on the carpeted floor of the study and eat without gusto. 

“These pancakes suck.” Diego mumbles. 

“Yeah.” 

Everyone agrees. 


	26. Epilogue

It took Five months to collect the shattered parts of Graces input chip from the wreckage of the explosion and piece them together again. And today is the day he finds out if all that work was worth a damn. 

He looks up at the clock to check the time. 2:35PM. Good. He has another fifteen minutes before he has to get ready to pick the kids up from school, he thinks. 

Five inserts the memory chip into the laptop on his desk and waits anxiously for green texts of code to appear on the black screen. 

They do. Some of it is broken, but it’s mostly all there. 

Five holds his breath, turns his webcam on and exhales slowly. 

“...Mom?” 

  
  


**H e l l o F i v e**

  
  



End file.
